Racedo's post regarding EI & FR is disingenuous as usual.
FR & EI are both listed on the London Stock Exchange. He is well aware that this is the authority on which the UK can investigate. Thus his France argument is nonsense.
Completely false.
Please show where LSE listing rules provide UK competition commission authority to get involved with any company.
Also his pedalling of the mantra regarding the prevention of a takeover renders the finding invalid, is also misleading. The primary basis of the finding was 'that Ryanair's shareholding could "substantially lessen" competition on routes between the UK and Ireland.'
"The CC found that the two companies had ceased to be distinct enterprises for the purposes of the Act as a result of Ryanair’s ability to exercise material influence over the policy of Aer Lingus and that this therefore amounted to a relevant merger situation. Ryanair with a holding of 29.82% could block special resolutions at general meetings of Aer Lingus and could prevent Aer Lingus from merging with another airline either within a scheme of arrangement or under Directive 2005/56/EC on cross-border mergers."
The divestment was based on claiming that a merger situation existed where "2 separate entities had ceased to be distinct".
A clear false position because Ryanairs holding has not stopped Aer Lingus competing
Finally, even regarding the takeover, IAG bidding for EI doesn't 'prove' that FR is not blocking others from taking it over, that won't happen unless IAG succeeds.
It is difficult to see the point of his bizarre argument because anyone fooled by it cannot be remotely familiar with the facts and thus he is preaching to the irrelevant.
"“7.30 Third parties told us that any acquirer of Aer Lingus would be likely to be concerned by Ryanair’s minority shareholding. IAG told us that it would not usually contemplate buying a controlling interest in an airline with a significant ongoing minority shareholder. Air France said that Ryanair’s presence as an existing shareholder in Aer Lingus was not considered a deterrent to another airline acquiring an interest in the airline. However, there would be concerns over the illiquid share block between the shares held by the Irish Government, Ryanair and employees. Overall, Air France said that it would be difficult, but not impossible, for another airline to take a stake in Aer Lingus given its current share register. Lufthansa said that having a competitor like Ryanair as a shareholder made Aer Lingus’s shareholder structure rather challenging and made the airline rather less attractive. Aer Arann told us that a potential suitor would have concerns about acquiring an airline in which the largest shareholder was also a competitor."
All in "" is direct from the Judgement.