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IAG, parent company of British Airways, aims to bid for a stake in Portugal’s TAP, competing with Air France-KLM and Lufthansa.
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British Airways’ parent company IAG said it aims to join the bidding process for a stake in Portugal’s TAP, as it contends with Air France-KLM AF and Deutsche Lufthansa for a slice of the state-owned carrier with coveted routes bridging Europe and Latin America.
International Consolidated Airlines Group —which houses carriers like British Airways, Iberia and Vueling—said Friday that it had submitted its interest to state-holding company Parpublica, seeking to join TAP Air Portugal’s privatization. IAG didn’t disclose financial details.
“Several terms would need to be addressed before IAG could propose an investment,” the group added.
IAG’s submission comes after Air France-KLM and Lufthansa said earlier this week they had put forth statements formally expressing interest in purchasing a stake in TAP.
In July, Portugal’s government said it would shed a 49.9% stake in TAP, reserving 44.9% for private investors and 5% for company employees. Officials have been mulling over a partial sale of the national carrier for years.
One of the terms of the sale requires buyers to keep the main hub for TAP in Lisbon. IAG said its decentralized model aligns with the Portuguese government’s intent to protect TAP, adding that it would have significant potential within the group.
TAP could be a linchpin for routes linking Europe and Latin America, prized for its access to the Latin American market, both Air France-KLM and Lufthansa have said.
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Beijing and Washington at odds over range of trade and national-security considerations
Beijing and Washington are discussing a trade deal that could include fresh orders totaling hundreds of Boeing BA 0.37%increase; green up pointing triangle jets, people familiar with the matter said.
The purchase is envisioned as a component of a more expansive trade deal if the world’s two largest economies can reach an agreement in the next few months, they said.
The purchase discussions were earlier reported by Bloomberg News, which said China could buy as many as 500 jets from the American plane maker.
U.S. passenger-jet orders are becoming a favored concession for countries looking to improve tariff terms from American authorities. Qatar’s state-owned airline in May agreed to buy up to 210 wide-body 787 and 777X jets from Boeing as part of a broader bilateral agreement. Announced trade deals with the U.K., Japan and Indonesia have also tacked on pledges to buy a certain number of the American airplanes.
Talks between the two superpowers are significantly more complex. The two sides are at odds over a range of trade and national-security considerations that cover everything from the supply of precious minerals to the delivery of artificial-intelligence chips.
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Union representing about 3,200 St. Louis-area workers rejected the company’s latest contract offer
Boeing leaders face another picket line after machinists in its St. Louis-area defense business rejected their latest contract offer.
The union division that represents about 3,200 workers in Missouri and Illinois on Sunday rejected the aerospace giant’s latest four-year contract proposal, threatening the company’s fragile turnaround effort. The workers went on strike at midnight.
The machinists had worked without a contract for the past week as company and union representatives haggled over work schedules and benefits, among other issues.
The new work stoppage doesn’t match last year’s massive Boeing strike in the Pacific Northwest, which pulled more than 33,000 employees off production lines responsible for its workhorse 737 MAX passenger jet. That nearly eight-week showdown caused havoc in the company’s profit powerhouse before workers won a 38% raise over the life of their four-year contract.
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The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter
U.K. antitrust officials said they wouldn’t open an in-depth probe into Boeing’s deal to acquire fuselage maker Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, effectively clearing the transaction weeks after they launched the first phase of an investigation.
The Competition and Markets Authority started looking at the deal in June to determine whether it could stifle competition in the U.K. Officials have now concluded that isn’t the case and said the transaction didn’t warrant a more in-depth probe.
Boeing agreed to acquire Spirit in July last year in a roughly $4.7 billion deal that included Boeing-related commercial operations as well as commercial, defense and aftermarket operations.
Spirit, which split from Boeing about two decades ago, has been at the center of quality issues affecting 737 MAX jets. Spirit’s factory in Wichita, Kan., made the fuselage involved in last year’s Alaska Airlines door-plug blowout.
Boeing executives have said they believe taking control of Spirit’s operations would improve the safety and quality of its manufacturing.
Clearance from the CMA brings the companies closer to finalizing the transaction. If U.K. antitrust officials had concluded the deal threatened competition, they could have blocked it altogether or imposed so-called remedies on Boeing, meaning the jet maker could have been forced to sell certain assets or make other concessions to earn antitrust approval.
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