U.S. Investor Group to Buy DHL Airways

Privately held air cargo shipper DHL Airways said a group of U.S. investors led by its chairman would buy all of the company’s outstanding shares to help quell concerns over its ownership.

Chairman and Chief Executive John Dasburg, along with Richard C. Blum of San Francisco’s Blum Capital Partners and other U.S. investors, will buy the DHL Airways shares Dasburg does not already own from Idaho investor William Robinson and from DHL Holdings for $57 million. Dasburg now has a 5% stake.

Miami-based DHL Airways is enmeshed in a review by a Transportation Department administrative law judge over whether it violates laws limiting foreign ownership of domestic airlines. DHL Worldwide and DHL Airways are partners of Brussels-based DHL International, which is wholly owned by Germany’s Deutsche Post.