Lauda bids for to get his old airline back (3rd Update)

Lauda (R) gets his airline back

UPDATE Austrian former racing driver Niki Lauda was chosen to buy the assets of Niki which he founded in 2003, the administrators of the former Air Berlin subsidiary announced Tuesday.

Lauda's bid was preferred over Anglo-Spanish group IAG/Vueling. It was the third offer the former Formula One champion had made since September.

"At the end of a transparent tender, Lauda came out early in the morning as the best bidder," administrators said in a joint statement. They had emphasized the need for a swift green light from the authorities in Austria and Germany.

Niki Airline, started by Lauda in 2003, then sold

01/15/18 Niki Lauda has re-emerged as a potential bidder for Niki, the Austrian budget airline he founded whose messy insolvency proceedings may derail an agreed sale to Britain’s IAG (ICAG.L).

Lauda weighed in after an Austrian court appointed an administrator for Niki on Friday, in response to legal action brought by a passenger rights group seeking to recover money it says the airline owes.

That turn of events followed the reversal of an earlier decision by a Berlin court to locate the insolvency in Germany. The German administrator had agreed on a sale of Niki to British Airways owner IAG.

“I will, of course, make an offer for Niki by Jan. 19," Lauda told Germany’s Handelsblatt business daily, referring to a deadline set by the court in the Austrian town of Korneuburg.

12/29/17 Niki Lauda, Niki's founder, was quoted as saying on the website of newspaper Die Presse that he was out of the running in the bid for the airline.

12/22/17 Niki Lauda has made a bid for Austrian holiday airline Niki.

But Ryanair and a consortium of family-owned logistics firm Zeitfracht and maintenance group Nayak decided against an offer, they said.

"I can confirm that Niki Lauda handed in an offer (for Niki)," his spokeswoman said, declining to say how much he offered or whether he had teamed up with anyone.

Niki Lauda founded the airline in 2003.

Niki, a unit of Air Berlin, filed for insolvency last week after Germany's Lufthansa backed out of a deal due to competition concerns, grounding the airline's fleet and stranding thousands of passengers.