Ryanair concedes failure in Aer Lingus takeover bid

Ryanair has admitted that its latest hostile bid to take over Aer Lingus has failed after the Irish government indicated that it would not support the offer.

Officials at the budget carrier said they were disappointed the 90 per cent acceptance stipulation could not be met, but that it would “respect and abide” by the government’s decision.

Ireland’s government owns 25 per cent of Aer Lingus, and has said that Ryanair’s cash offer of €1.40 per share “greatly undervalues Aer Lingus and a merger on the basis proposed would be likely to have a significant negative impact on competition in the market.”

“Because we live on an island Irish consumers depend very heavily on air transport. A monopoly in this area would not be in the best interests of Irish consumers,” noted Irish Transport Minister Noel Dempsey.

Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, said in a statement released on Friday: “We don’t think it is in the best interests of Aer Lingus, which will be isolated as a small, peripheral, loss making airline, reduced to announcing so called ‘partnerships’ with other loss makers like United Airlines.”

He went on to say: “It is also sad, when thousands of jobs are being lost in Ireland, that Ryanair’s offer to create 1,000 new Irish jobs in Aer Lingus over the next five years has been rejected.”

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