IAG (Iberia) enters Air Europa with 20% of the capital after converting a 100 million loan – ABC.es

Iberia’s first step to take over Air Europa is now complete. The parent company of the former flagship company, IAG, has informed the CNMV on Tuesday of the conversion of the 100 million unsecured loan to Globalia for 20% of the shareholding of Juan José Hidalgo’s airline. The operation had already been announced since March and places Iberia as the second shareholder of Air Europa. Therefore, it will have a presence on its board of directors, although it will not command. The arrival of the loan was conditional on Globalia receiving the approval of the syndicated banks that facilitated the arrival of the ICO credit, in addition to the approval of SEPI, as supervisor of the public support of 475 million granted through the rescue fund for companies strategic. A green light that he received at the end of May, as this newspaper announced. An agreement with which IAG has also guaranteed the exclusive right to negotiate the acquisition of Air Europa for one year and two more rights of first refusal before the arrival of another possible offer for the Hidalgo airline. Because the intentions are still to acquire 100% of the Balearic airline as soon as possible. Something that it hopes to complete before the end of 2023, since this movement is still subject to the opinion of the community competition authorities that were instigators in the breaking of the first agreement they reached in 2019 for 1,000 million euros. The EU’s Directorate General for Competition determined in December that the merger of Iberia and Air Europa generated a monopoly on some routes and set very rigid conditions that conditioned the commercial interest of the agreement. After this rupture, IAG disbursed 75 million to Globalia in compensation while waiting to reach a new agreement for an amount lower than that initially agreed, after a pandemic that has left the accounts of the airlines, and especially that of Air Europa, touched. who has seen how his debt was multiplied by the health crisis. Related News Iberia’s parent company continues to defend the strategic nature of the operation, to consolidate the Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas airport as a connection ‘hub’ with Latin America, in addition to turning Madrid’s infrastructure into a new claim to attract Asian tourists . The company directed by Luis Gallego also believes that the purchase of Air Europa by an international operator such as Lufthansa or Air France would distance Barajas from competing with the large airports on the continent such as Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Heathrow in London or Frankfurt.