LH interessatissima ad Iberia

[SQpps]

Deutsche Lufthansa AG Chief Financial Officer Stephan Gemkow said the German airline has a responsibility to consider a possible takeover of Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana, Spain's biggest carrier.

``With the CFO going around and offering the company for sale to BA, Lufthansa and others, we'd be forsaking our duty if we didn't take a look at it,'' Gemkow said in an interview at Frankfurt airport today. At the same time, ``with the shares rising as they are now, any business case would be a hard sell.''

Iberia shares have gained 16 percent this week on speculation that an aviation treaty between the U.S. and European Union may hasten an offer for the Madrid-based carrier. Iberia's Latin American network would complement Lufthansa, Europe's second-largest airline, which doesn't have many connections to the region, Gemkow said.

The so-called open skies accord, which European transport ministers approved in Brussels today, will allow EU airlines to fly from any of the bloc's airports to the U.S. as of March 2008 instead of just from their home countries, a freedom that may facilitate takeovers in the region.

``Lufthansa wants Iberia, but the shares have gained too much at the moment for them,'' said Juergen Pieper, an analyst with Bankhaus Metzler in Frankfurt with a ``buy'' recommendation on Lufthansa shares.

Shares Rise

Shares of Iberia in Madrid declined 1 euro cent, or 0.3 percent, to 3.69 euros. The stock, which finished yesterday at a record 3.70 euros, has gained 34 percent this year, valuing Iberia at 3.5 billion euros ($4.7 billion). Lufthansa shares in Frankfurt rose 31 cents, or 1.5 percent, to 20.56 euros, valuing the company at 9.4 billion euros.

Iberia CFO Enrique Dupuy told the Financial Times in November that the European airline industry was at the beginning of a merger cycle and that it was possible Iberia may forge links with Paris-based Air France-KLM Group or Cologne, Germany-based Lufthansa. British Airways Plc, the region's No. 3 airline after Air France and Lufthansa, already owns 10 percent of Iberia, and the companies jointly manage routes between the U.K. and Spain.

Seeking Information

Lufthansa and a U.S. investment fund contacted Iberia to request information, El Pais reported today, citing unidentified people in the industry. Iberia said yesterday that it may provide information to potential investors interested in a ``transaction.''

The German airline, which agreed in 2005 to buy Swiss International Air Lines Ltd., isn't in talks with Iberia, Lufthansa Chief Executive Officer Wolfgang Mayrhuber said in an interview in Frankfurt today.

``We did not request any information from Iberia,'' he said. ``But under the consideration that consolidation in Europe is generally very positive, Lufthansa would talk with any airline that wants to make a further step toward that consolidation.''

The carrier wouldn't consider a minority stake in Iberia, Mayrhuber added. Caja Madrid, Spain's second-biggest savings bank and Iberia's No. 2 shareholder, is considering selling its 9 percent stake in Iberia, the Hispanidad.com financial news Web site reported March 20, without saying where it got the information.

``If you can't get to a common balance sheet, an aligned interest, it wouldn't make sense for us to buy 5 percent or 10 percent of a company,'' Mayrhuber said. ``I'm not interested then.''

[Steman]

Se non sbaglio il nostro buon Tocky ha riportato in un altro thread la notizia secondo la quale anche BA e' intenzionata ad aumentare la propria presenza in IB che attualmente e' al 10%.
Sebbene capisca l'attrattiva che il network sudamericano ha per LH, mi risulta difficile comprendere l'interesse ad un acquisto (assai costoso) del vettore Spagnolo solo o principalmente per coprire i buchi nel proprio network!

Ciao

Stefano