Bank offers hope of saving Laker

Press, 9 February 1982, Page 8

Bank offers hope of saving Laker

NZPA-Reuter London Bankers, business tycoons and ordinary Britons are fighting to save Sir Freddie Laker's cut-price airline which collapsed on Friday with debts of $621 million. The Orion Merchant Bank, a subsidiarv of the Royal Bank of Canada, thinks it can raise $BO million in Britain and North America to put Laker Airways back in service w r ith Sir Freddie retaining a leading role. A leading businessman, Peter Cadbury, is trying to set up a consortium to save the airline, and the London “Financial Times” said yesterday that- Roland “Tiny" Rowland, chief of the giant Lonrho Group, is also expressing an interest. Sir Freddie, already a popular figure before his financial crash, became an instant folk hero over the week-end. Thousands of ordinary Britons are sending or pledging money to try to rescue him from his financial crash. One fund organised by a housewife on the English south coast received pledges of $1.7 million within 48 hours of the’ collapse of Laker Airways. w r hich launched a cheap, no-frills service to the United States in 1977. Overwhelmed by its debts and by the airline price war over the Atlantic which has also plunged most of his

rivals into the red. Sir Fred- X die handed control of the company to a London accountant, Bill Mackev. the receiver appointed by his bankers.

Mr Mackey has the task of picking up the pieces and paying off as much as he can of the company's debts.

So far Mr Mackey has expressed doubts that Sir Freddie's “.Skytrain” service can be revived in the same fo'rm. But he said yesterday be thought it likely that Sir Freddie would return to the fray.

•j wouldn't be at all surprised to receive an offer from a consortium of which Sir Freddie is a part. He is a survivor, and I think we will hear more of him. He has ability and flair," Mr Mackeysaid.

Christopher Chataway, a former Conservative PartyTrade Minister who is deputychairman of the Orion bank, said American and Canadian investors interested in saving the airline believed that $BO million would carry it through the crisis.

But the would-be rescuers also believe that the company can only survive by staying British, and the North Americans will put in their money only if they find British partners. Mr Chataway said that (he bank's proposal might mean that the “Skytrain" service would fly again this (northern) summer.