Originally Posted by
Reversethrustset
Well it's not the same question is it, I want a bar of chocolate because I fancy one, I need to eat food to survive.
With Flybe being so cheap to buy and the legacy issues that's keeping them in the red easyish to sort out for anyone with cash then considering they have a strong business (high revenue) then it should be a good purchase for almost anyone. Now you could argue that the purchaser might not be good for Flybe as we know it, but fundamentally if strong leadership prevails with strong restructuring then there's no reason why it wouldn't be a good acquisition. As for why now, well it's cheap enough isn't it? There will never be a better opportunity. Why Flybe? Why not? One of my friends is a BA skipper and he took Willie Walsh back to Spain 18 months ago. He visited the flightdeck for a chat and effectively said the only thing missing for IAG now is a regional airline acquisition so they've clearly been thinking about it for quite a while.
People are confusing shares issued by stock market price with price to buy.
If I own 15% of Flybe and Stock market says it is worth £30 million then you may come and say I will give you £4.5 million and we all be happy but reality is different. I paid £40 million and want it back or the majority of it and I don't have to sell. This is the important bit, if anybody have 90% of the shares then can legally force everybody else to sell at offer price. If you don't then you need to persuade everybody.
This is why in a takeover winning 50.01% is important because you have won control of the company. However if other shareholders refuse to sell then it can become difficult because the law rightly protects Minority interests in a company. Getting 90% means own it outright and force others to seel but certain things within rules require 75% approval etc so it ll just becomes compliated and lawyers make lots of money.
There are lots of rules such that a company may buy 29.9% of shares at which point it must make a takeover attempt, if it owns 20% and allied with someone else so they are regarded as own and the same with 10% then same rule applies. Lots of these rules seem petty but if you owned 10,000 shares in Flybe you have to be treated in exactly same way as Investor who owns 15,000,000.