Pomp, you have hit the nail on its head here. I live in Australia and our government has done the same with airlines here as well. Horrific capital management was undertaken by Airline execs whilst they got lucky with lower oil prices over the last 5 years. What did they do with the cash? Distribute them as dividends. They did nothing but line their own pockets and continually sucked the cash out of the Balance Sheet. Australian taxpayers have no equity upside after the recent bailout of Qantas - if you were the Government, why would you not have issued the capital as a loan or equity of some sort?! Love your work Pomp, keep it up!
Pomp, you have hit the nail on its head here. I live in Australia and our government has done the same with airlines here as well. Horrific capital management was undertaken by Airline execs whilst they got lucky with lower oil prices over the last 5 years. What did they do with the cash? Distribute them as dividends. They did nothing but line their own pockets and continually sucked the cash out of the Balance Sheet. Australian taxpayers have no equity upside after the recent bailout of Qantas - if you were the Government, why would you not have issued the capital as a loan or equity of some sort?! Love your work Pomp, keep it up!