The AFR Street Talk column today is evidently suggesting that bankers have been promoting to buyout firms that there is a play to be had through buying out and merging THL and ATL. See post on HC under ATL for details.

While combining the two companies would provide plenty of scope for rationalisation of infrastructure and perhaps fleet sizes, I’m assuming it would be a hard sell to get past regulators given the market dominance of a merged company in both NZ and Aus.