German airline Lufthansa is the only contender to have launched a takeover bid for ailing flag-carrier Austrian Airlines, a source close to the matter told AFP on Tuesday after a bidding deadline passed.
Lufthansa was the only one of the three interested companies to have lodged a firm bid for the airline (AUA), the source said, contradicting an earlier media report.
Air France-KLM and S7 of Russia had also expressed interest but did not present a formal offer, the source said.
The deadline for firm offers passed at 1000 GMT on Tuesday after months of media speculation about which airlines might step in to help take over AUA during difficult times for the airline sector.
The state-owned holding company OeIAG is looking for a buyer for its 42-percent stake in AUA, after the Austrian government gave it until the end of the year to find a partner.
A further deadline stands for bidders to present details of their takeover proposals by Friday and the final announcement on which company will take the stake is to be announced on October 27.
Austrian Airlines has nearly 900 million euros (1.3 billion dollars) of debt and has estimated losses this year in the tens of millions of euros.
According to terms of the sale, 25 percent of AUA’s capital must remain in Austrian hands so as to safeguard jobs and maintain Vienna as the airline’s main hub.
*** One of middle-class Austrians told me that many of rich Vienna people have villas in Meidling, so inspired by class feeling the rest of population decifer Meidling car code as «Mega-Depp», what means big idiots. Some of rich Russians have also property there.
Михаил Хойпль – австрийский политик от социал-демократической партии. Начиная с 1994 года является бургомистром Вены.
Будучи школьником, Михаил, также как и его младший брат, являлся членом национал-освободительного юношеского движения (Pennalen Burschenschaft)
В Кремсе. После окончания гимназии, он изучал биологию и зоологию в Венском университете.
Хойпль стал бургомистром Вены 7 ноября 1994 года.
Со времени своего назначения на пост бургомистра, он выиграл три избирательные компании с возрастающим преобладанием голосов за социал-демократическую партию.
Ныне он состоит во втором браке с Хельгой Хойпль-Сайтц, с которой они живут раздельно и с которой он имеет общего сына, у него также есть дочь от первого брака. Скрытый лидер и мощная фигура в стане австрийской социал-демократии.
Yesterday website «Disclosure» had 650 pageviews and 350 unique visitors. For me it was sad and minute popularity, as I was thinking about Jörg Haider and that he looked unhappy during the last months before this accident. Photo of Michael Häupl was made by me yesterday at Rathausplatz
Looking through tons of amateur Russian videos, I found interview with journalist Anna Politkovskaya, and realized instantly why she was killed two years ago.
Murder of Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist and human rights activist was well known for her opposition to the Chechnya conflict and to Vladimir Putin.
On October 7, 2006, Putin’s birthday, Politkovskaya was found shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow. Makarov pistol and four shell casings were found beside her body. She was shot four times, once in the head.
Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko
A week after the assassination, former KGB-officer and writer Alexander Litvinenko accused Putin of sanctioning the murder. Two weeks after this statement, Litvinenko was poisoned by the radioactive polonium.
Death of Yuri Shchekochikhin
Journalist Yuri Shchekochikhin, whom I knew in person, when I lived in Moscow, and who used to write about organized crime and corruption, which involved high-rank FSB officers, was poisoned in 2003 – just a few days before his planned departure to the US where he planned to meet with FBI investigators.
In December 2005, while attending a conference of Reporters Without Borders in Vienna, Anna Politkovskaya said: «People sometimes pay with their lives for saying aloud what they think”
The Committee to Protect Journalists has kept track of the number of Russian journalists killed since Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000.
According to CPJ research, Russia is the third deadliest country in the world for journalists over the past 15 years, behind only the conflict-ridden countries of Iraq and Algeria. A total of 47 journalists have been killed in Russia since 1992, with the vast majority of killings unsolved.
