Air France and Lufthansa stand to gain multi-million Euro windfalls when Amadeus, the Madrid-based Global Distribution System floats on Spanish stock exchanges later this month.
Amadeus hopes to raise €910 million to repay company debt by issuing 85 million new shares. Another 35 million existing shares will be sold by the two airlines and private equity investors.
Lufthansa, Air France, Iberia and SAS set up Amadeus in 1987 to compete with US-based GDSs. SAS is no longer a shareholder, but Air France owns 23.1% of Amadeus, Lufthansa 11.6% and Iberia, which has decided not to sell any of its shares, the same amount, making a total of 46.3% The majority shareholder is Amadelux Investments with 52.8%.
"The three will sell off about 25-30% of their stakes, but retain a large majority of their current stock in the business," said an Amadeus spokesman. He added that Iberia had taken the decision "to benefit from the long-term value," a decision not thought to be linked to its merger with British Airways.
The shares are in the price range €9.2-€12.2 and will have their first day of trading on April 27. Amadeus, which will be listed on the stock exchanges of Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia, made pre-tax profits of €894 million in 2009 on revenue of €2,461 million.
www.amadeus.net