Lauda to again bid for stricken Airline Niki

Former Formula 1 world champion Niki Lauda has re-emerged as a potential bidder for Niki, the Austrian airline he founded whose messy insolvency proceedings may derail an agreed sale to IAG. Lauda weighed in after an Austrian court appointed an administrator for Niki 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 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. Lauda did not say how much he was prepared to bid for Niki. <br/>