British Airways (BA) abandoned on Monday its takeover plans for rival carrier Iberia, leaving a rival group of Spanish investors unopposed in their bid to take over Spain's biggest airline.
British Airways had made an informal approach for Iberia with a group of private equity groups including Texas Pacific Group, but earlier this month a group of Spanish investors unveiled proposals for a higher offer.
A statement from the BA-led consortium sent to the Spanish market regulator CNMV on Monday said: "We have decided to withdraw our indication of interest in the company."
On Nov. 15, the Spanish investors led by private equity group Gala Capital unveiled a rival informal offer priced at 3.60 euros to 3.90 euros per Iberia share, valuing Iberia at up to 3.7 billion euros (US$5.4 billion).
This compared with the offer of 3.60 euros a share presented by the British Airways consortium.
British Airways' share price dropped 4.63 percent to close at 329.75 pence on London's FTSE 100 on Monday, with investors speculating that the airline was set to abandon the chase.
Earlier, BA had said it had decided not to exercise options to acquire an extra 14 percent stake in Iberia, a clear indication that it did not plan to pursue its takeover plans.
It already owns 9.95 percent.
While BA is seen as wanting to spread its wings across the Latin American market, analysts have also suggested that the British airline is looking to grow to fend off a possible takeover itself.
British Airways is also facing increased competition after EU transport ministers early this year cleared plans to free up transatlantic routes between Europe and the US.
Iberia was privatized in 2001 and is the leading carrier linking Europe and Latin America, accounting for 18.7 percent of the market.
Spanish logistics company Logista said last week it would sell its 6.7 percent stake in Iberia, while BBVA, Spain's second-largest bank, said it would also offload its 7.3 percent stake.
Spanish savings bank Caja Madrid has exercised an option to buy the stakes belonging to Logista and BBVA, but will not form part of the Gala Capital consortium.
British Airways chief financial officer Keith Williams said in a statement earlier on Monday that "British Airways' position as Iberia's key industrial partner remains important and is not dependent on an increase in shareholding."
As well as BA, Caja Madrid, BBVA and Logista, Iberia's other key shareholder is Spanish department store owner El Corte Ingles.
"We will enter into discussions with Caja Madrid in order to maximize the value of our relationship with Iberia," Williams said.
Under a preemption agreement signed in 1999, if any of the core shareholders in Iberia wants to sell their shares, the remaining core shareholders have the right to buy, BA said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS