Iberia Airlines expects to gain 600m from the sale of its 18% stake in GDS and IT solutions provider Amadeus while Lufthansa expects about 170m from the sale of its 5.1% stake, the two carriers said.
Shareholders in the Madrid-based company have agreed to sell it to two UK private equity firms, BC Partners and Cinven. A new company WAM Acquisition, set up by the two firms, will be the new owner of Amadeus.
Iberia said it would be taking an 11.5% stake in WAM, valued at around 115m. Lufthansa said its stake in Wam would be 11.7%
The third carrier Air France which has a 23% stake in Amadeus has said it will own a 23% stake in WAM.
If the sale, which is subject to the approval of the Spanish Securities Market Commission, goes ahead, the owners plan to delist the Amadeus.
Air Partner profits soar
Air Partner, the world's largest air charter company, said pre-tax profits for the first half of the financial year had more than doubled.
David Savile, the UK-based broker's ceo, said profits rose from £1.1m to £2.5m in a period when turnover rose 46% from £43.6m to £63.6m
Mr Savile said business has increased in the six months mainly because of several large, one-off contracts. These had included agreements to take 290 administration staff of former US president Bill Clinton and media to the Little Rock, Arkansas for the dedication of the Clinton Presidential Center and contracts for relief work in Baghdad and for the tsunami in Asia.
He said such a level of business was unlikely to be repeated. However private chartering enjoyed a boom in the last six months of 2004 with Hunt and Palmer, another UK-based broker and rival to Air Partner, reporting a much higher level of business.