Not surprised by today's report, I've always thought JetBlue was the ideal investor for Aer Lingus. JetBlue acquiring a minority stake in Aer Lingus will allow them to maintain existing relationships with BA, KLM, Aer Arann, and United Airlines, as well as leaving open the possibility for a future commercial tie-up with Etihad. Any attempted takeover would put a question mark over all of these codeshares/joint ventures/partnerships.
Originally Posted by MidlandDeltic
My own view is that the government should not have held on to the shares at all - but many EI workers of course live in then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's constiuency, and he hated being the bad guy. Now, the Troika-induced announcement of an effectively enforced sale at some point means the shares will never realise a decent return. Ironic as in the scheme of things the amounts involved are insignificant.
There was more to it than that. The disaster of eircom's privatisation was still fresh in peoples' memory, so this 25% stake was the government's attempt to reassure the public, who were quite skeptical that an Aer Lingus IPO may go the same way.
Originally Posted by MidlandDeltic
Speculation from this on Morning Ireland on RTE Radio 1 this morning suggested that until FR agree to sell, the possibility of a trade sale is limited, but that MO'L had rolled back from that position. However, the government would then be in a bind, as over 50% of the shares would be for sale, which would badly depress the share price. A bit of a catch 22 - and of course it would potentially open the company up to an effective takeover by a third party.
That would effect Ryanair as well though, who will want to recover as much of their investment as possible, so I can't see them selling at the same time as the government.