Swiss government to present view of airline takeover on Tuesday

BERN - The Swiss government will announce Tuesday its position on a takeover bid for Swiss International Air Lines by Lufthansa of Germany, the finance ministry said Friday.
Meanwhile, two investors called for the creation of an investment fund to counterbid for the airline, saying it was founded with tax revenue and Lufthansa's bid offer was too low.
The government, which is the majority shareholder in Swiss with a 20.4 percent stake, will take employees' interests into account, along with those of linking Swiss durably to a major international airline network, the ministry said in a statement.
Other key Swiss shareholders are the Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse, the canton of Zurich and major Swiss enterprises such as Nestle, Novartis and Roche.
Together, the federal and local governments along with Swiss businesses and leading business figures own 86 percent of the airline's shares.
The ministry said the government would announce the decision Tuesday to the boards of directors of the two airlines, which were to meet the same day.
Meanwhile, investors Juerg Brand and Marius Grossenbacher called on Swiss shareholders and investors willing to put up a minimum of 10,000 Swiss francs (6,500 euros, 8,500 dollars) to form an investment vehicle to counterbid for the airline.
The proposed investment vehicle would be called SR Invest Holding, they said in an open letter published Friday in the Swiss daily Tagesanzeiger.
In the letter, Brand and Grossenbacher said that Swiss, "founded with two billion Swiss francs of tax capital", is to be "given away" to Lufthansa for 65 million francs.
The two investors said they would ensure that Swiss continued to be an independent quality Swiss airline.
Following substantial merger speculation, Lufthansa and Swiss announced on March 14 that they were in "constructive" takeover talks.
The idea was to integrate Swiss -- the successor company to former flag carrier Swissair which went bankrupt in 2001 -- into the wider Lufthansa group, the German airline said a statement.

03/18/2005 16:37 GMT