Astar Air Offers to Buy ABX Air

By Patrick Danner, The Miami Herald

Jun. 28–Miami’s Astar Air Cargo Holdings has made an unsolicited offer to acquire ABX Air, an Ohio-based cargo airline that claims Plantation-based DHL as its largest customer.

In a letter to ABX’s board Thursday, Astar boss John Dasburg said it was prepared to offer $7.75 per share for all of the outstanding ABX shares. ABX reported nearly 58.7 million shares outstanding as of last month, which would put Astar’s offer at about $454 million.

The offer comes about two weeks after DHL acquired a 49 percent equity interest and a 24.9 percent voting interest in Astar.

ABX’s shares soared 85 cents to $8.08 in early afternoon trading.

ABX was an affiliate of Airborne but was spun off to Airborne’s shareholders after DHL acquired Airborne’s ground operations for $1.05 billion in 2003. Federal rules restrict foreign ownership of U.S. airlines. DHL is an arm of Germany’s Deutsche Post.

Dasburg and an investor group acquired Astar four years ago when the airline was known as DHL Airways. The group paid $57 million for the airline.

“Mr. Dasburg and the ownership team have always wanted to own both carrier operations,” said Elliott Seiden, a lawyer representing Astar. “They made a proposal to DHL to buy both airlines back in 2003.”

Dasburg believes operating both Astar and ABX under one management team will create operational efficiencies, Seiden said.

ABX has received Astar’s offer and is evaluating it with advisors.

The smaller Astar has a fleet of 45 aircraft and 1,100 employees. ABX, by comparison, has about 100 aircraft and more than 6,100 full-time employees.

DHL has accounted for virtually all of ABX’s cargo in recent years, ABX reported in a regulator filing. ABX generated $90 million in net earnings on $1.26 billion in 2006. Astar is privately held.

—–

To see more of The Miami Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.herald.com.

Copyright (c) 2007, The Miami Herald

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NASDAQ-NMS:ABXA, XETRA:DPW,