TAP Air Portugal for sale

[SealinkBF]

International Airlines Group, KLM/Air France and Lufthansa Group all interested in "at least" a 51% stake in the company.

Bidding war expected with sale of TAP Air Portugal | Travel Weekly (https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/air/bidding-war-expected-with-sale-of-tap-air-portugal)

[jmdavies86]

I wonder if IAGs chances might be impacted as a result of the Competition and Markets Authority's announcement (https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/uk-regulator-assess-iag-american-airlines-partnership-2023-09-28/) that they're continuing their investigations into the Atlantic Joint Business Agreement, which currently exists between American, members of International Consolidated Airlines Group (BA, EI & IB) and Finnair.

If they [IAG] were the successful bidder, surely their plan would involve including TP into this agreement somehow, no...?!

[GSM763]

IAG grabbing TAP and Air Europa would give them a lot of control of the Iberian market. The EC seems to regret letting the LH Group come to dominate Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the way that it did so I wouldn't be surprised if there were pushback. AFKL seems like the easiest fit from a competition PoV.

[CabinCrewe]

IAG would have been better ditching AE and going for TAP if likely to be any regulatory obstruction. Surely IAG will be all over the rules if they thought it would be a waste of their time

[nguba]

I think the issue for IAG will be control. A 51% stake with a potentially vocal minority shareholder may be seen as more trouble than its worth.

[Una Due Tfc]

I think the issue for IAG will be control. A 51% stake with a potentially vocal minority shareholder may be seen as more trouble than its worth.

Indeed. They weren’t willing to tolerate an Irish government stake of 25% when buying EI, and WW worked very hard to avoid that.