However, Michael Jones said the investors were rebuffed by the carrier’s now-former chairman Lim Kim Hai, who Jones branded “rude, dismissive and not interested”.
Rex collapsed into administration two weeks ago following days of speculation over its future. The move significantly followed a board reshuffle, which saw long-time deputy chairman John Sharp replace Lim as chairman before Lim attempted to oust Sharp and other senior directors.
Speaking to The Australian, Michael Jones, the co-founder of Rex after it emerged from the ashes of Ansett, revealed the group was attracted to the prospect of growing Rex’s 737 capital city services.
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“The Boeing 737s are where the upside for any investors would be because there are structural and fundamental problems with the regional airline in relation to Saab serviceability,” he said.
“I called Lim and said there’s this consortium of guys, we’re fair dinkum, this is who we are, and who the investors are and we’re prepared to make an offer of twice the market cap or circa $160 million.
“He was basically rude, dismissive and not interested and said, ‘You’re not serious. I would only accept $300 million as a minimum and I’ve got three other parties who are prepared to pay that.’”
Jones said that while he thought Lim was “incredibly intelligent”, he was “becoming a megalomaniac – the belief in himself and the delusion”.
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The news comes after The Australian Financial Review published documents and emails it said were from key Rex players, including Lim and Sharp, revealing what it described as an “all-out war at the company’s highest levels” between the two, including Sharp allegedly saying Lim “lives in a world where he is God”.
Rex’s administrator has grounded all of its 737 flights, but the airline is still continuing to fly its smaller Saab regional services, with help believed to have been provided by the federal government.
It comes after Space Connect reported earlier this year how ELA agreed a deal with a Singaporean rocket company for a series of suborbital launches later in 2024.
The blast-offs will take place on the traditional ELA launch pads at its Arnhem Space Centre in the Northern Territory.
The arrangement with the similarly named Equatorial Space Systems (ESS) is initially an MOU but could lead to a fuller deal for the company to become a longer-term tenant blasting off orbital rockets.
Jones said the two firms were a good fit for each other.
“We have a cost-effective solution for both small and larger rockets,” he said. “We have facilities for assembly, integration and test of both engines, sub-systems and the entire rocket. The other obvious advantage is our remoteness.
“This makes recovery and operations for suborbital launch and testing easier and when offset by the access to the area via a jet-serviced airport and a deep-water port, our customers are all seeing the key attributes that set us apart from other space ports.”
The upcoming launches this year will use ESS’ Dorado rockets which will carry science experiments and technology demonstrator payloads.
Adam Thorn
Adam is a journalist who has worked for more than 40 prestigious media brands in the UK and Australia. Since 2005, his varied career has included stints as a reporter, copy editor, feature writer and editor for publications as diverse as Fleet Street newspaper The Sunday Times, fashion bible Jones, media and marketing website Mumbrella as well as lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Woman’s Weekly, Men’s Health and Loaded. He joined Momentum Media in early 2020 and currently writes for Australian Aviation and World of Aviation.
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