Ryanair non si arrende con Aer Lingus. Terzo tentativo di take-over


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Aer Lingus braced for Ryanair takeover bid

By Mark Foxwell
Last updated at 9:00 PM on 26th December 2009

Irish airline Aer Lingus is preparing to fight off a likely third takeover bid from rival Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost carrier.

The Aer Lingus board plans to meet with shareholders, including the Irish government, which owns 25 per cent, on January 26.

That is just days before a yearlong bar under stock market rules that prevented Ryanair making a renewed bid is lifted.

Ryanair, which owns just over 29 per cent of Aer Lingus, made its second bid for the airline last year, tabling a £701 million offer. But it was rejected, with the Irish government saying it undervalued the company and competition would suffer.

Analysts believe the Irish government could be swayed by a fresh offer due to Aer Lingus's recent downbeat results, with a loss of £72 million in the first half of this year.

In contrast, Ryanair saw profits grow by 75 per cent in the half-year to September to £372 million, putting it in a strong financial position against its weak rival.

Sources close to Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said plans were being put together to bid for the carrier, but declined to comment on a price.

Ryanair first bid for Aer Lingus in 2006, but the takeover was blocked by the European Commission on competition grounds. However, it did not intervene when the second bid was made.

One source said: 'Although O'Leary said he would only take over the company if it came grovelling, he has been in recent discussions to table a bid.'

Only two weeks ago Ryanair pulled out of talks with Boeing over a multi-billion dollar order for up to 200 aircraft and said it had no plans to reopen discussions.

One source said he thought the decision was mainly because of O'Leary's confidence that his third attempt to take over Aer Lingus would be successful, adding scores of aircraft to the group's fleet.

Ryanair and Aer Lingus declined to comment.

(Daily Mail)
 
riecco un altra scalata all'albero della cuccagna.... ma tanto che ridipingono aer lingus coi colori fr o fanno come az e ap che sono due compagnie nella stessa scatola???
....ma facessero percaso i progretti sulla pelle di aerlingus per fare i voli transoceanici?? mah......chi vivrà vieirà :D
 
doz86 ha detto:
riecco un altra scalata all'albero della cuccagna.... ma tanto che ridipingono aer lingus coi colori fr o fanno come az e ap che sono due compagnie nella stessa scatola???
....ma facessero percaso i progretti sulla pelle di aerlingus per fare i voli transoceanici?? mah......chi vivrà vieirà :D
Clicca per espandere...
Nel caso di scalata potrebbe essere usata per i voli di lungo raggio, in fondo MOL ha sempre detto che non sarà usato il marchio FR per i voli di lungo raggio.
 
Ryanair non potrà acquisire il controllo di Aer Lingus
Lo ha stabilito il Tribunale dell'Ue

Ryanair non potrà acquisire il controllo di Aer Lingus: il Tribunale dell'Ue ha dato ragione alla Commissione europea che aveva giudicato l'operazione incompatibile con le regole del mercato comune. Per i giudici europei, invece, non si può obbligare la compagnia low cost a cedere la propria quota in Aer Lingus.

www.guidaviaggi.it
 
Comunicato stampa Ryanair:

RYANAIR WELCOMES EU COURT RULING THAT IT CAN RETAIN ITS 29.8% STAKE IN AER LINGUS


Ryanair, the world’s favorite airline, today (6 July) welcomed the EU Court’s confirmation of the European Commission’s 2007 decision that it can not force Ryanair to sell its shareholding in Aer Lingus. Ryanair also noted the Court’s decision to reject Ryanair’s appeal of the EU Commission’s decision to block Ryanair’s 2006 offer for Aer Lingus. Ryanair is currently studying the details of this 125 page judgment.

The EU Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, said on 27 June 2007 that “Since Ryanair is not in a position to exert de jure or de facto control over Aer Lingus, the European Commission is not in a position to require Ryanair to divest its minority shareholding, which is, by the way, not a controlling stake.”

Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said:

“We welcome today’s ruling of the EU General Court which confirms that Ryanair can not be forced to dispose of its 29.8% shareholding in Aer Lingus. This is the third time since 2007 that Aer Lingus has lost appeals on this issue.

We note the Court’s decision on our appeal against the EU Commission’s ruling on our 2006 offer for Aer Lingus. This will not prevent Ryanair making a future offer for Aer Lingus, but obviously any such offer will have to take account of the court’s detailed ruling. Ryanair has no immediate plans to make a third offer for Aer Lingus, which in any event would be unlikely to succeed unless the Irish Govt decides to sell its 25% stake.

Ryanair regrets however, that since the rejection of our two previous offers for Aer Lingus, both of which contained guarantees on growing Aer Lingus’ traffic, fleet, jobs and profitability Aer Lingus has become a small peripheral regional airline with declining traffic, fleet, jobs and is reporting substantial losses.

We continue to believe that the long term financial viability of Aer Lingus can only be secured as part of one strong Irish airline group, particularly when the rest of Europe’s airlines are consolidating to three main flag carriers, lead by Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa and two large low fares carriers, Ryanair and easyjet. Unless Aer Lingus finds a strong airline partner then we believe it is doomed to fail because it can’t compete with Ryanair’s low fares, customer service or scale.”
 
Aer Lingus CEO Says Flybe a ‘Tool’ in Ryanair Takeover Game

Aer Lingus Group Plc Chief Executive Officer Christoph Mueller said Ryanair Holdings Plc’s plan to transfer part of the Irish flag carrier’s business to Flybe Group Plc as part of a takeover bid can’t be taken seriously.
“It seems so far-fetched, this proposition, that we don’t waste our time in basing things on that,” Mueller said today on a call with reporters. “The entire bid, starting from the price to theconstruction of the deal, I cannot take really serious.”
Flybe stock rose 30 percent today after it said agreement had been reached with Ryanair on transferring 43 routes and at least nine jets as part of concessions submitted to the European Commission to help win antitrust approval for a deal. Ryanair has also held talks that could see British Airways add Irish routes in an accord aimed at later transferring Aer Lingus slots at London Heathrow, people familiar with the matter have said.
“Only the motivation seems to be clear,” Mueller said of the plans being discussed. “We have taken market share from Ryanair, British Airways and Flybe and since they cannot beat us in the market place this seems to be a trick in front of the Commission. We see Flybe only being a tool in that game.”

BA Success

Piaras Kelly, a spokesman for Dublin-based Ryanair, which has grown to become Europe’s biggest discount airline under CEO Michael O’Leary, declined to comment.
Flybe said today it could implement the Irish expansion with next winter’s timetable, contingent on Ryanair -- which already owns about 30 percent of Aer Lingus -- gaining European Union approval for the remedies and going ahead with a deal.
“The reason Michael O’Leary approached us is because they saw how successfully we turned around British Airways,” Flybe CEO Jim French said on a separate call, referring to the 2006 acquisition of the BA Connect business, a deal that turned his carrier into the largest in Europe in the regional sector.
Shares of Exeter, England-based Flybe jumped the most since the company’s listing in December, 2010, and traded 21 percent higher at 54.25 pence as of 12:40 p.m. in London, valuing the company at 40.8 million pounds ($64 million).

‘Upside Down’

Under the scenario mapped out by Flybe, the U.K. carrier would acquire a new business, Flybe Ireland, for 1 million euros from Ryanair. The low-cost carrier would inject 100 million euros of cash into the unit, contribute 50 million euros of forward sales and assume sufficient costs to ensure Flybe makes a 20 million-euro pretax profit in the first year, French said.
“We question very much that Flybe will be an independent competitor to Ryanair,” Mueller said. “We generally agree that weak airlines should disappear but this proposition turns this entire thing upside down.”
Mueller is trying to “divert the focus away” from Aer Lingus’s own operations, French said, adding that Flybe would boost frequencies and integrate Irish routes into its network as a “long-term business opportunity.” The airline would pay a penalty if it dropped services in the next three years, he said.
BA previously paid Flybe about 130 million pounds to cover restructuring when gave up its regional arm, French added.
The proposed deal with Ryanair is in keeping with Flybe’s strategy of expanding in a low-risk fashion, Investec analyst Andrew Fitchie said in a note to investors.

Monopoly Concern

The EU blocked a Ryanair bid for Aer Lingus five years ago, saying it would create a monopoly over Irish flights. O’Leary’s plans have also drawn opposition from the Irish government, which holds a 25 percent stake.
Aer Lingus stock rose above the value of Ryanair’s 1.30 euros-a-share bid for the first time as an increase in long-haul traffic boosted full-year revenue, gaining 4.1 percent to 1.34 euros before trading 0.4 percent higher at 1.29 euros.
Pretax profit before one-time items of 67.1 million euros was “marginally ahead” of the 64.9 million euros expected, James Hollins, another Investec analyst, said. Sales rose 8.2 percent to 1.4 billion euros and the passenger total increased 1.5 percent to 9.65 million, Aer Lingus said.
Aer Lingus will lift its full-year dividend 33 percent to 4 cents a share, it said in a statement. The company said it cannot provide an earnings outlook for 2013 while takeover proceedings are outstanding, though Mueller said he was “very optimistic” about prospects for the year.

bloomberg
 
E a quanto pare non sara' il terzo no per Ryanair da parte della Commissione Europea.

* * *

Ryanair has been notified that the European Commission plans to block its third Aer Lingus takeover attempt [2].

The Irish budget carrier claims it met every competition concern raised in the EU’s Statement of Objections [3], eliminating “all competitive overlaps” with Aer Lingus. “IAG has committed [4] that they would take over divestments of Ryanair’s and Aer Lingus’ entire London-Gatwick operations, and Flybe has committed [5] to take over 43 Aer Lingus UK and European routes,” Ryanair said.

However, during a meeting on Wednesday morning the European Commission said it plans to prohibit the deal [6]. “It appears clear from this morning’s meeting that no matter what remedies Ryanair offered [7], we were not going to get a fair hearing and were going to be prohibited regardless of competition rules,” a Ryanair spokesman said.

The budget carrier argued that the Commission holds it to “a much higher standard [8] than any other EU airline,” adding that a ruling against the deal would be “manifestly unfair and in contravention of EU competition rules.” Ryanair has instructed its lawyers to appeal any prohibition decision.

Flybe said it was disappointed by the news, which effectively aborts its partnership plan [9]. It added that it will await the outcome of the appeal and in the meantime focus on its cost savings plan [10].

Takeover target Aer Lingus has not yet received formal notification from the EC, although it countered that the hostile offer [11] “should never have been made.”

“Aer Lingus is a much stronger airline today than it was at the time of the previous Ryanair offers and is Ryanair's only significant competitor on the vast majority of Irish air routes. The number of routes into and out of Ireland on which Aer Lingus and Ryanair compete has sharply increased since [Ryanair’s first takeover bid in] 2007. The reasons for prohibition are therefore even stronger in this instance than with the previous offers.”

On June 15, 2012, the Office of Fair Trading referred Ryanair's minority shareholding in Aer Lingus [12] to the UK Competition Commission for review. Aer Lingus said it now looks forward to the conclusion of the UKCC investigation. “As indicated previously it is Aer Lingus' position that Ryanair, as our largest competitor should be required to divest its shareholding in Aer Lingus.”

Fonte: ATW online
 
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