| Aviation News-Ryanair buys extensive Aer Lingus shares.
Ryanair has bought over 16% of Aer Lingus shares, the airline said this morning.
It also announced its intention to make an all cash offer of €2.80 per share for the rest of the airline. This values Aer Lingus at about €1.481 billion and is a premium of 27% over last week's flotation price of €2.20 per share.
Ryanair says the combined strength of both companies would establish an Irish airline group with over 50m passengers annually, capable of competing on the European and World stage against other large European airline groups,includingLufthansa/SAS/Swiss, Air France/KLM and BA/Iberia.
This offer represents a unique opportunity to form one strong airline group for Ireland and for European consumers,' commented Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary today.
We will expand, enhance and upgrade the Aer Lingus operations. This offer - if successful - means both companies will continue to operate separately and compete vigorously in the small number of routes on which we both operate -currently around 17 of the approximately 500 routes operated by the two airlines, he added.
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