Maybe the buyer won't be DHL/ASTAR at all:
By David Mildenberg
June 29 (Bloomberg) -- ABX Air Inc., the air-freight
company that's the target of a $455 million buyout bid by Astar Air Cargo, may attract a higher offer, possibly from a management-led group, an analyst said. ``People are speculating that someone else will come along and buy it,'' analyst David Campbell of Thompson Davis & Co. said in an interview today, a day after closely held Astar disclosed its $7.75-a-share proposal in a letter to ABX's board. Shares of ABX fell 5 cents to $8.02 at 2:45 p.m. New York
time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They surged 12 percent yesterday to top the bid price. Campbell, who is based in Richmond, Virginia, rates the stock as a ``hold.'' A merger would team two air cargo companies that share Wilmington, Ohio, as their principal air hub and Deutsche Post AG's DHL Express as their dominant customer. ABX is based in
Wilmington; Astar is based in Miami. A call to ABX Chief Financial Officer Quint Turner wasn't immediately returned. ABX said yesterday its board was studying the proposal. The offer is valued at $455 million based on Astar's offering price and ABX's 58.7 million shares outstanding as of May 9.