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Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Irish government backs sale of Aer Lingus to IAG, (NASDAQ: RYAAY)

The Irish government agreed on Tuesday to sell its 25 percent stake in Aer Lingus to IAG, paving the way for the owner of British Airways and Iberia to make a formal bid for the Irish carrier.International Consolidated Airlines Group's (IAG) proposed 1.36 billion euro ($1.48 billion) offer for Aer Lingus was recommended by the Irish airline's board in January but is still conditional on receiving the support of its other main shareholder, Ryanair Holdings Plc."There's a number of extremely important changes that have led to this decision by government today," Paschal Donohoe told a news conference after a cabinet meeting. In February the government presented IAG with a list of new demands it said had to be met before it would consider the sale, in areas including possible job cuts, transatlantic services and a longer guarantee on maintaining connections between Irish airports and London's Heathrow airport, BA's hub where Aer Lingus holds valuable runway slots.

Ryanair Holdings plc is an Ireland-based holding company for Ryanair Limited (Ryanair). Shares of RYAAY traded higher by 1.6% or $1.04/share to $66.23. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $49.70 and as high as $71.79. On average, 325534 shares of RYAAY exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 735679.



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