Ryanair want to buy Aer Lingus again

BenjAii · 01-12-2008 01:23PM #1

Can't see the government or European Commission liking the idea any more this time, though O'Leary points out the regulatory climate has changed since the last time.

"Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said: “This proposed merger of Ryanair and Aer Lingus will form one Irish airline group with the financial strength to compete with Europe’s three major airline groups - Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa.” "

Smarmy as he frequently he is, you can't knock him for ambition .....

kraggy · 01-12-2008 01:25PM

Government have fcuk all say in it. It's a European competition issue.

brianthebard · 01-12-2008 01:31PM

Government still have a share in Aer Lingus afaik, therefore do have a say.

AnonoBoy · 01-12-2008 01:31PM

Bah! If Ryanair buy Aer Lingus we'll have to pedal most of the way to save fuel on trans-Atlantic flights. :mad:

kmick · 01-12-2008 01:31PM

Cant see it happening unless AL are really in trouble. Plus the government and the staff have too many of the shares and will never sell to Ryanair.

kraggy · 01-12-2008 01:32PM

brianthebard wrote: »

Government still have a share in Aer Lingus afaik, therefore do have a say.

Nope.

Just because they have a share in it don't mean they can't be compelled to sell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeover#Hostile_takeovers

BenjAii · 01-12-2008 01:35PM

kmick wrote: »

Cant see it happening unless AL are really in trouble. Plus the government and the staff have too many of the shares and will never sell to Ryanair.

Especially as O'Leary is only offering a 25% premium to AL's current low, low share price.

I think the gov own 25% - so O'Leary can't do it without them, and he's hardly making it worth their while, so this doesn't look like a serious offer. Maybe this is just another one of his publicity gimmicks ? He might have a new calendar to promote or something .....

connundrum · 01-12-2008 01:37PM

kraggy wrote: »

Nope.

Just because they have a share in it don't mean they can't be compelled to sell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeover#Hostile_takeovers

Well they do have a say in that they can object, but if the majority of shareholders i.e. Ryanair and employees want to sell, then they'll be selling.

Let em have it I say.

Then we should sell the Govenment to Ryanair, after they buy the HSE.

brianthebard · 01-12-2008 01:39PM

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Bah! If Ryanair buy Aer Lingus we'll have to pedal most of the way to save fuel on trans-Atlantic flights. :mad:

If it was cheap enough you'd consider it wouldn't you?

(thread descends into a "Ryanair is awesome-capitalism ftw!" vs, "Ryanair are cnuts and O'Leary is a modern slave driver" in 3...2....)

dan_d · 01-12-2008 01:43PM

AL has unions. O Leary doesn't do unions......
I wonder how that will work??

AnonoBoy · 01-12-2008 01:43PM

brianthebard wrote: »

If it was cheap enough you'd consider it wouldn't you?

I'm actually allergic to endorphins so I shouldn't exercise so I'm afraid I wouldn't consider it.

Terry · 01-12-2008 01:44PM

connundrum wrote: »

Well they do have a say in that they can object, but if the majority of shareholders i.e. Ryanair and employees want to sell, then they'll be selling.

Let em have it I say.

Then we should sell the Govenment to Ryanair, after they buy the HSE.

If they buy the HSE, will Harney appear in one of their calendars?

That must never happen (except if you're into BBW).

AnonoBoy · 01-12-2008 01:45PM

Terry wrote: »

That must never happen (except if you're into BBW).

Even then there are limits to what the human eyes are meant to be exposed to.

themadchef · 01-12-2008 01:46PM

Michael o leary.

Doubt if he really gives a dam if he ever gets Aer lingus. He's most likely bored and hasint had his name in the paper for a few weeks.

ibuprofen · 01-12-2008 01:46PM

Ever since Aer lingus said they would source jobs out of Ireland I became a little disillusioned with them.
I can see alot of airlines folding in the next year or two and this merger would allow an Irish company to compete with Luftansa , Ba and Air France.

''Ryanair says it wants to 'merge the two airlines into one strong Irish airline group' under common ownership similar to recent mergers in Europe such as Air France-KLM and Lufthansa-Swiss.''

''It says that if the offer is successful it will double the size of the Aer Lingus short haul fleet from 33 to 66 planes over the next five years. It also promises 1,000 new jobs.''

If anyone can make it happen it's Ryanair. I have to say I'm looking forward to this merger going through in these trying times.

kraggy · 01-12-2008 01:46PM

Lol

Yeah I can just see it now. Miss Flabuary 2009.

big b · 01-12-2008 01:58PM

Terry wrote: »

If they buy the HSE, will Harney appear in one of their calendars?

That must never happen (except if you're into BBW).

Do they do calendars in widescreen?

kraggy · 01-12-2008 02:05PM

big b wrote: »

Do they do calendars in widescreen?

Don't be so disrespectful.

Mark200 · 01-12-2008 02:06PM

"Ryanair want to buy Aer Lingus again "

They've always wanted to. They were just waiting for their next chance.

I'd have nothing against the takeover. Aer Lingus are on their way to trying to copy the Ryanair low-cost model just so they're able to compete, I don't think frequent Aer Lingus customers would see a huge change.

Michael O'Leary has said he'd still want them to remain two different companies/operations...but just all under the one group.

It'd also allow room in the Irish market for Aer France or BA to compete against the low-fares market.

robinph · 01-12-2008 02:57PM

Mark200 wrote: »

It'd also allow room in the Irish market for Aer France or BA to compete against the low-fares market.

Wasn't Go or Buzz or something BA's try at doing a low cost carrier? Whoever it was they ended up being bought by Ryanair.

slumped · 01-12-2008 03:41PM

dan_d wrote: »

AL has unions. O Leary doesn't do unions......
I wonder how that will work??

He'll probably let them all go in a cost cutting venture and then offer them their old jobs at reduced pay and make them enter a non union agreement.

S

Snickers Man · 01-12-2008 07:20PM

The airline market out of Ireland is working pretty well at the moment. Good choice of routes, airlines and, er, customer experience. If you want the adventure of hiking across to London from the far end of Essex and the satisfaction of knowing that it cost you only a few quid to do so, then you have Ryanair's Stansted service.

If you want the convenience and security of catching a connecting flight to wherever and the knowledge that if it all goes pear shaped at least you'll get a bed for the night, and are willing to pay a little extra for the privelege, there's Aer Lingus.

This deal will see major rationalisation on flights out of IReland (why else would he buy Aer Lingus?) and a consequent rise in fares. All this talk of "growing the market" is just hokum, especially in these times. If he wanted to "grow the market" he'd have bought another really dead duck airline in Europe. But he hasn't, has he?

This is partly cyncial profit-maximising business hardball, trying to take out a major competitor in tough times, and partly vindictive "all semi state companies are bad or even former semi state companies or even companies with a trade union agreement and I want to prove that I can beat them by being more ruthless than they"

The PDs might be dead but the spirit of "**** over the consumer to make a bigger profit and kid on to them that it's really in their best interest" lives on.

I hope this deal falls on its ass. The real loser will be the Irish travelling public.

kraggy · 01-12-2008 08:51PM

Offer rejected. On Rte news www.rte.ie/news

Mark200 · 02-12-2008 12:00AM

Disappointing.

Interesting chart though on that rte page..

Riddle101 · 02-12-2008 12:15AM

I don't like Micheal O' Leary that much, he's an autocratic leader and i'm not too specifically fond of those type of people, unless it's me who the autocratic leader of course:D Giving him Aer Lingus means bad news for the staff of Aer Lingus because they'll see the true form of his heart. Don't be tempted by Satan.

On the other hand a merger like this means a strong Irish Airline and considering how Aer Lingus dosen't look stong enough to last another two years I would say it's their best chance. Hopefully something can be resolved

IvySlayer · 02-12-2008 12:20AM

With the bad economy, and fuel prices, having an airline just ain't profitable, unless you're sneaky like Ryanair. I believe Aer Lingus will be looking to get the easy way out instead of watching their company go belly up.

They said 750 million wasn't worth the company so its an incentive to for Ryanair to come back with a better offer. It was rejected because it wasn't enough cash, not because they don't want to sell.

Also I can imagine the calender...

January

Boeing 747

February

Boeing 747

March

OH GOD IT'S A HIDEOUS PLANE!! Oh wait it's our minister for health, coming out of Peter Marks :pac:

Nehaxak · 02-12-2008 01:10AM

I know my view on this might be going against what seems like the widely held view with the Irish public (from what I can tell anyway) but...

I'm all for this and I think it makes perfect business sense along with a shrewd business move by O'Leary to make that move now.

I also feel that if Aer Lingus don't take this offer now, they'll never get another one like it or better over the next ten years anyway, if they even manage to stay afloat for another two years on their own.

Aer Lingus will push ahead with replacing their staff with cheaper labour from other markets regardless along with cutting flights and staff in other departments. They cannot compete or even try to compete with Ryanair's business model and expertise in this "market" without help from the government in some way, which is probably illegal or at least improper/uncompetitive but they'll do it anyway I'm sure.

They're badly managed, badly run in general and losing money faster than they can hope to be saved by themselves OR with government assistance.

They wanted to go commercial and wanted to float on the stock market so with that, they are open to the market like any other company - no use crying about it now when they're in such a volatile and feeble business position brought about by their bad management.

Would prefer to see them taken over by Ryanair now so at least they have some hope of being saved.

Mark200 · 02-12-2008 10:46AM

Nehaxak wrote: »

I also feel that if Aer Lingus don't take this offer now, they'll never get another one like it or better over the next ten years anyway, if they even manage to stay afloat for another two years on their own.

Yeah I agree. They rejected Ryanair's offer two years ago of €2.80 per share because apparently it wasn't enough.

Now they're rejecting their offer of about €1.30 per share.

Ryanair probably aren't going to make a higher offer. Aer Lingus shares are just going to continue to go down, partially because of the recession and partially because they just have a terrible management.

I think pretty soon they'll be face with an offer of €1 per share.

phantom_lord · 02-12-2008 11:18AM

Nehaxak wrote: »

I know my view on this might be going against what seems like the widely held view with the Irish public (from what I can tell anyway) but...

I'm all for this and I think it makes perfect business sense along with a shrewd business move by O'Leary to make that move now.

me too

RobBrn · 02-12-2008 11:22AM

slumped wrote: »

He'll probably let them all go in a cost cutting venture and then offer them their old jobs at reduced pay and make them enter a non union agreement.S

Then we wouldn't have four strike threats in 2 years

robinph · 02-12-2008 12:19PM

Mark200 wrote: »

I think pretty soon they'll be face with an offer of €1 per share.

It will probably be an offer of €1 that they get bought for eventually, but I'd doubt if it will be as much as €1 per share. Much more likely to be €1 for the whole company.

Ryanair want to buy Aer Lingus again

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