Qantas bid group says has 12.57 pct voting power

SYDNEY, Apr 30 (Reuters) A consortium bidding for Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd. on Monday stepped up pressure on investors to accept its A$11 billion ($9.1 billion) offer, which will lapse it fails to secure 50 percent support by Friday.

The bid consortium, called Airline Partners Australia (APA), said it has 12.57 percent voting power in Qantas.

Shareholder acceptances including a facility where institutions can accept but retain the right to withdraw were at 25.51 percent.

However, this was down 27.8 percent last week as some fund managers sold shares in the open market to benefit from strength in the Australian dollar, sources close to the bid said.

The offer closes at 7:00 p.m. (0900 GMT) on Friday. If APA gets 50 percent of the shares by Friday there will be an automatic extension of the offer for 14 days.

The bidding group, which includes Macquarie Bank Ltd.

, private equity firm Texas Pacific Group [TPG.UL], Allco Equity Partners Ltd. , Allco Finance Group and Canadian investment firm Onex Corp , said in a statement APA's offer has been accepted by the more than half of Qantas shareholders by number.

''Despite public comments by one or two vocal shareholders, a clear majority of Qantas shareholders (by number) have accepted the offer and want it to succeed,'' said APA spokesman Bob Mansfield in a statement.

On Sunday, Andrew Sisson of fund manager Balanced Equity Management reiterated that his fund would not accept APA's offer, saying it was a ''long way'' short of reasonable value for the airline. It owned about 4 percent of Qantas shares as of March.

Opposition to the takeover from institutions has forced the consortium to drop its minimum acceptance condition to 70 percent from 90 percent.

Mansfield said major investors usually waited until the last week before accepting offers to ensure they retained control of their investment as long as possible.

Qantas shares were steady at A$5.32 in morning trade, still short of the A$5.45 a share bid price in a firmer overall market <.axjo>.

($1=A$1.21) REUTERS PV VP1140