The co-founder of Rex has revealed he assembled a consortium to take over the collapsed airline in September last year.
However, Michael Jones said the investors were rebuffed by former chairman Lim Kim Hai, who he branded “rude, dismissive and not interested”.
Rex collapsed into administration two weeks ago following days of speculation over its future.
The move significantly followed a board reshuffle, which saw long-time deputy chairman John Sharp replace Lim as chairman, before Lim attempted to oust Sharp and other senior directors.
Speaking to The Australian, Michael Jones, who now oversees spaceport business Equatorial Launch Australia, revealed the group were attracted to the prospect of growing Rex’s 737 capital city services.
“The Boeing 737s are where the upside for any investors would be, because there are structural and fundamental problems with the regional airline in relation to Saab serviceability,” he said.
“I called Lim and said there’s this consortium of guys, we’re fair dinkum, this is who we are, and who the investors are and we’re prepared to make an offer of twice the market cap or circa $160m.
“He was basically rude, dismissive and not interested and said ‘You’re not serious, I would only accept $300m as a minimum and I’ve got three other parties who are prepared to pay that.’”
Jones said that while he thought Lim was “incredibly intelligent” he was “becoming a megalomaniac – the belief in himself and the delusion”.
The news comes after The Australian Financial Review published documents and emails it said were from key Rex players including Lim and Sharp, revealing what it described as an “all-out war at the company’s highest levels” between the two, including Sharp allegedly saying Lim “lives in a world where he is God”.
Rex’s administrator has ground all of its 737 flights but the airline is still continuing to fly its smaller Saab regional services, with help believed to have been provided by the federal government.
Australian Aviation reported earlier this month how former ACCC chair Rod Sims condemned what he called a “failure of public policy” that led to Rex’s downfall.
Speaking on ABC Radio National, Sims insisted that the Australian aviation market can sustain more competition but said this is being held back by poor policy settings around slot management at Sydney Airport.
The federal government this year decided against changing the “80/20 rule”, which allows airlines to keep a take-off slot indefinitely provided they operate it at least 80 per cent of the time – effectively punishing new entrants.
“We certainly can have more than two airlines on these capital cities routes, certainly on the Melbourne-Sydney route. But public policy is simply stopping that happening, and I don’t know why,” Sims said.
The organisation that handles slots later hit back at the suggestion it was somehow responsible for Rex’s, and previously Bonza’s, demise.
Petra Popovac, CEO of Airport Coordination Australia (ACA), said “Bonza has never requested a slot in Sydney. Rex received many slots in the peak periods and handed some peak slots back as they had too many to use,” she said.
“Slots are not the issue at Sydney. Rod Sims has never communicated with ACA or asked any questions of us regarding the allocation of slots at Sydney, or anything else.
“In its 26-year history, ACA has never had any complaints against it.”
