The Spanish government has tried to encourage Air Europa (UX, Palma de Mallorca) and Iberia (IB, Madrid Barajas) to finalise a deal and bring to a close long-running talks on the sale of the Globalia-owned airline to the flag carrier’s parent IAG International Airlines Group, sitting down for the first time with their respective chief executives Jesús Nuño de la Rosa and Javier Sánchez-Prieto, sources close to the matter informed the digital newspaper El Confidencial.
The meeting, which was led by Manuel de la Rocha, the government’s secretary-general of economic affairs, accompanied by transport secretary of state Isabel Pardo de Vera, took place on the recommendation of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who had reportedly already been in contact with Iberia and Globalia owners the Hidalgo family. It was convened more than three years after the announcement of the first failed agreement.
The government representatives stressed that the transaction is considered strategic for the country, as well as for the Madrid Barajas hub, as it would serve to boost routes not only to Latin America and the United States but also to the Middle East and Asia - markets that are currently in the hands of the two Spanish carriers’ competitors.
They asked for the status of the negotiations as they stand now and the sacrifices the parties would be willing to make in order to achieve a successful outcome by March 31, the deadline of the preferential period Globalia gave the Anglo-Spanish holding company to negotiate exclusively with it. The help of the Spanish authorities was offered in supervising the operation, especially as it would have to obtain European Commission approval on competition grounds.
According to El Confidencial, Juan José Hidalgo, president and founder of Air Europa, has continued to repeat in private circles that “I will never sell my airline to the English, even less so at the price they offer me.” The most recent offer from IAG, dating from January 2021, is EUR500 million euros (USD540 million).
The meeting appears to have yielded results. Air Europa has received from Iberia a new draft agreement, albeit one in which the price has hardly changed. Nuances to be resolved in the coming weeks also include the guarantees and penalties a merger would require from both parties if Brussels continues to oppose the transaction for competition reasons. The objective, the sources said, is not to stretch the talks until the deadline but to seal a deal in February. They added that the government is keen to see an agreement partly out of concerns that a more foreign group than IAG could end up buying Air Europa.
