Marriage between IAG and Air Europa 'won't happen': too many stakes from EU, IAG pulls out of transaction

To make a strong quote, "this marriage is not to be". It should have been the second major wedding of the year, after those of ITA and Lufthansa, and instead the whole thing ended with a black smoke. 

The IAG group - which controls British Airways e Iberia - formally announced the Waiver of the acquisition of the 80% of Air Europa: "we have decided to terminate the agreement with Globalia signed on Feb. 23, 2023, under which Iag agreed to acquire the remaining 80% of Air Europa's issued share capital from Globalia," IAG's statement reads, "the Board of Directors has concluded that, in the current regulatory environment, it would not be in the interest of shareholders to continue with the transaction.

Why did the holding company decide to parade? Trivially, Because of the constraints imposed by European standards. Indeed, the European Antitrust Authority, in this case as well - exactly as it did with the ITA-Lufthansa file - was concerned that this acquisition 'killing' the competition (especially on certain routes to Latin America). International Airline Group, for its part, made several waivers-for example, it gave up the 52% of Air Europa flights at the Madrid airport-which, however, were not enough. IAG, therefore, will remain in possession of only a minority stake in Air Europa (about 20%); now, however, she will be forced to pay a huge fine (amounting to $50 million) to Globalia for 'slipping' out of the deal.

What happens now? Hard to say, hard to predict. "The company will continue to evaluate other acquisition opportunities, starting with neighboring Portugal where state-owned airline TAP is potentially up for sale," commented Luis Gallego, CEO of IAG. But on the privatization of Portugal's flag carrier, Air France-KLM is also apparently having second thoughts. In short, there is to wait; we will hear and see good things.