Germany’s Lufthansa is considering offering a buyout to Austrian Airlines’ shareholders to take over the ailing carrier, according to Austria’s Takeover Commission. Lufthansa’s offering price can’t be less than 182 million euros or $234 million due to Austria’s Takeover Code.
The code requires a mandatory offer to outstanding shareholders if a buyer acquires control of a company. Under the rules, the offer must not be less than the average share price of the target company in the six months preceding the offer. The average price of Austrian Airline’s share price in the past six months is 4.30 euros.
Two other companies, Air France-KLM and Russia’s S7, were shortlisted by the Österreichische Industrieholding AG (OeIAG) as the leading contenders to take over Austrian Airlines.
Air France said it hadn’t file a bid by the deadline, although it is still interested in talking further. S7 has sent a letter of interest although sources say that it doesn’t contain the binding bid that OeIAG is looking for.
Thus far, Lufthansa has been the only carrier that has filed a proper offer. However, Lufthansa has also requested that the process be delayed by two months. Barring that, they are demanding that Austrian Airlines’ debt be cut off.
The commission has said that, at this point, the two sides are far apart and the deal may never be consummated.
