Former Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) director-general Billy Chang (張國政) yesterday said that his plan to acquire TransAsia Airways Corp (復興航空) was canceled after the agency said it would retract the firm’s cross-strait aviation rights following the airline’s decision last week to dissolve its business.
The CAA said it received a written note on Tuesday from TransAsia after the agency said it would take back the airline’s cross-strait aviation rights after the firm suspended its services.
The airline said in the note that it intended to proceed with the decision by its board to dissolve the company.
Photo: CNA
Although Chang announced that he and his team were interested in buying TransAsia, they did not mention when or if they would resume flights, the CAA said yesterday, adding that this would caused the agency to activate its procedures to take back the cross-strait rights.
Chang told a news conference yesterday morning that the CAA’s decision to withdraw TransAsia’s aviation rights made it impossible for his team to acquire the airline.
Chang denied accusations that he intended to inflate TransAsia’s stock price by making the announcement on Tuesday while the stock market was still open.
“Why would I want the company’s stock price to go up if I want to purchase it?” he asked, adding that neither he, his team nor any of their relatives had ever thought that the stock price would be an issue.
He would have to spend an additional NT$1.4 billion to NT$2 billion (US$43.9 million to US$62.7 million) on TransAsia if the stock price rose, he said, adding that he would welcome prosecutors to investigate his actions if there were serious accusations that he used the opportunity to illegally profit on the airline’s shares.
Chang also denied that he owns TransAsia shares through a private equity fund.
Chang said that he can now rest easy with the bid to take over TransAsia over, and he would put the episode behind him and focus on something else, adding that he really has nothing to lose.
Asked why he was interested in acquiring the airline, Chang said he represents a team advocating the revitalization of Hengchun Airport in Pingtung County, which the government is considering closing due to its annual financial losses of NT$60 million.
He said his team has spent NT$200 million on a project to revitalize the airport, with funds coming from Taiwanese investors.
He said he had signed a confidentiality agreement not to disclose the investors’ identities.
“We heard on Thursday last week that China Airlines (中華航空) would temporarily take over the operations of TransAsia. Our team spoke about changing the way the airline operates if we were to buy it,” he said, adding that his team would have taken on TransAsia’s 1,700 employees if it had been successful.
Chang said he tried to contact Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) on Monday in an attempt to make the deal happen.
Hochen’s “secretary told me that the minister was not in a position to tell me what or what not to buy, and asked me to call TransAsia chairman Vincent Lin (林明昇),” Chang said.
Lin said he still intended to dissolve the company and lay off its employees and would not propose any plan to resume services in the airline’s written response to CAA, Chang said.
Nevertheless, Lin said that Chang was free to disclose his plan to acquire the airline, he said.
While Chang said that he respected the CAA’s decision to retract TransAsia’s aviation rights, he also said that government officials — including Premier Lin Chuan (林全), Hochen, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) and CAA Director General Lin Kuo-shian (林國顯) — know nothing about civil aviation affairs.
Apart from TranAsia’s own problems, Chang said the airline folded because of the challenges facing the airline industry and warned that more carriers would go out of business.
Wang said that Chang did not mention any specific details about his team and the plan to take over TransAsia, adding that the whole thing looked like a farce.
“We would be happy to see someone who was willing to buy TransAsia and keep the workers, but TransAsia’s chairman met with more than 10 potential investors before he dissolved the business and none of them responded positively,” Wang said.
The CAA also reminded TransAsia that it needs to protect the interests of its workers, Wang said, adding that the aviation rights that it would soon take back from the airline would be reassigned to other carriers.
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