Aer Lingus announced Tuesday it supports a takeover bid by British Airways parent IAG, putting the Irish airline with its trademark shamrock tailfins on course for foreign acquisition nine years after the national flag carrier’s privatization.
The 11-member Aer Lingus board said it could recommend IAG’s latest bid of 2.55 euros ($2.85) per share, valuing the airline at 1.36 billion euros ($1.52 billion). It emphasized that the proposal required backing from the two biggest shareholders: rival Irish carrier Ryanair and the Irish government.
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Aer Lingus’ 2006 flotation price was 2.20 euros per share. Cash-rich Ryanair that year offered 2.80 euros but was rebuffed by Aer Lingus, labor union leaders, the government and European regulators, who ruled that a Ryanair-Aer Lingus merger would create a monopoly on routes linking Britain and Ireland.
