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Ned · Guest

"Qantas chairman Margaret Jackson will bow to pressure and quit the
airline's board.
She made her decision during an intense, day-long board meeting in
Melbourne today.

In a terse statement issued tonight a Qantas spokeswoman said:
"Ms Jackson has informed the board today she will retire from the
board when her term ends at this year's annual general meeting (in
several months).

"An announcement will be made today concerning ongoing board and
management decisions and Qantas' plans for the future."

Ms Jackson, 54, has been under acute pressure since vigorously backing
the now-abandoned $11.1 billion buyout bid for the carrier by Airline
Partners Australia.

She is believed to have lost the support of key members of the board.
However, her decision to go at the annual meeting was endorsed by the
board.

Until yesterday Ms Jackson had been been staring down her critics and
insisting she would stay on to maintain stability at the head of the
airline."For the moment both myself and the board believe that
continuity and stability is what is needed," she said last week.

Melbourne based Qantas director James Strong refused to comment
tonight.

"You seriously don't expect me to answer that question," Mr Strong
said.

Ms Jackson came under fire particularly for remarks she made in two
newspaper interviews eight weeks ago.

The remarks, which it is believed she now regrets, included her use of
the word 'mental' to describe Qantas shareholders who refused APA's
then offer of $5.45 a share.

"Not every sentence of every paragraph I've ever uttered is perfectly
crafted," she said last weekend in response to the growing criticism.

When she made the comments she was in hospital recovering from surgery
for deep vein thrombosis, a condition usually triggered by long haul
air travel. In her case, the dvt was related to treatment for another
condition.

Ms Jackson, who joined the Qantas board in 1992 and has been chairman
since 2000, has led the airline through one of its most successful but
tumultuous periods in its history.

Ms Jackson and chief executive Geoff Dixon have guided the Qantas
through a serious of huge challenges, including the chaos after the
terrorist attacks on September 11 2001, the collapse of Ansett a day
later, the outbreak of the SARS virus and the falloff in air travel
after the Iraq War.

The airline has been transformed since 2001, with the creation of the
highly successful budget offshoot Jetstar. Qantas is now one of the
world's most succcessful airlines.

However, it faces renewed challenges both on its core domestic
services and its most profitable long-haul route to the US.

The emergence of Singapore Government-backed Tiger as a domestic rival
and Virgin Blue's plans to undercut the Pacific route are a real
threat.

The Jackson issue made today's board meeting one of the longest ever
and it will continue tomorrow.

Originally the board meeting was called to chart a new business
strategy for the airline following the collapse of APA's offer.

The bidding consortium today abandoned its pursuit of Qantas and as a
result Qantas shares fell 3 to $5.25.

"APA has concluded that in the current environment and circumstances a
renewed offer on terms acceptable to APA would not be likely to
succeed," the group said in a statement.

"On that basis APA has decided not to proceed with a renewed offer for
Qantas at this time."

The buyout syndicate wished Qantas every success for the future.

The APA offer collapsed two weeks ago when the syndicate failed to
gain 50 per cent of shareholder acceptances.

APA needed that stake to obtain the two-week extension it needed to
pick up an additional 20 per cent interest and get the bid across the
line.

Subsequent appeals to the Takeovers Panel failed, with some brokers
and analysts predicting the share price would collapse to the mid-$4
range unless a fresh bid was launched.

Shaw Stockbroking's Brent Mitchell said that he was not surprised that
APA had walked away.

"The government's obviously told them not to come back before the
Federal election," he said

"If you think about it, the bid didn't work at $5.45, you have to ask
what level would it work at.

"They would have to go back to their bankers, arrange finance at a new
level and the Qantas board would be unlikely to recommend it, even if
they came back in the short term.

"The board would be in a no-win situation if they recommended another
offer." "
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21750995-5006009,00.html

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nospam (AT) usenet (DOT) fake (Brian) wrote in news:f2kv9i$1ft$1 (AT) aioe (DOT) org: