In a mature economy, such as Europe, the only way to increase 'shareholder value'
is to acquire another company. After you have squeezed the juice out of it, then you move on.
Boys always like to have the biggest toys in the yard and the biggest bonus'. Nowadays, that means acquistion because there is no more space for natural growth. You can only expand if you force another to contract.
EI makes sense for IAG and they will already have others on their target list. Whether they are able to grow further, remains to be seen.