Lufthansa Gets Deal Between Austrian Airlines

Just recently, September 3, the Austrian government signed over its holding in Austrian Airlines to Lufthansa. This was a deal that is said to be worth almost €166 million to shareholders. Due to this deal, Lufthansa now owns 90 percent of the shares in Austrian Airlines after the state-owned holding company, Osterreichische Industrieholding AG, handed over its shares as well.

For Osterreichische Industrieholding AG’s share of Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa was said to have paid €366,268 for its 41.6 percent shares in the company. This means that Lufthansa bought about 36,628,791 shares at €0.01 per share.

However, as part of the deal, Lufthansa agreed to pay €166 million at €4.49 per share for 36,959,414 shares that are held by private shareholders. This amount of shares equals about 41.9 percent of the share in Austrian Airlines.

The German carrier went on to tell shareholders that all people who have offered their shares in the company for sale by May would be paid as well. The remaining 10 percent of Austrian Airlines, which is owned by the private and minority shareholders, will be given to September 9^th to sell their shares of the airline.

Lufthansa has noted that it would do its very best to squeeze out the rest of the minority shareholders. The share offer for Austrian Airlines was approved by 85 percent of its shareholders. This is well above the 75 percent threshold that is needed under the takeover terms.

Austrian Airlines is just the latest airline to be joining the Lufthansa group after bmi and Brussels Airlines did earlier this year. The feature of Austrian Airlines is less in doubt now that the responsibility of the mounting debt has been passed on to Lufthansa.