BA and Iberia owner IaG has agreed to buy Spain’s Air Europa for E500m ($606.7m), after the pandemic cut the price in half and IAG struck a deal to defer payment for six years. Under the amended deal, Iberia, which is buying Air Europa on behalf of IAG, will not pay the E500m until the sixth anniversary of the acquisition’s completion, the companies said. The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the airline industry since the deal was originally struck in November 2019, bringing most international travel to a halt. Air Europa been supported by loans from Spain’s state-owned industrial holding company SEPI during the crisis. Over the last year, IAG has said it still wanted to buy Air Europa, but its finances have also been squeezed, and it was forced to tap investors for E2.74b euros while also shedding thousands of staff to survive. It has been pushing for a price cut on Air Europa from sellers Globalia. The new deal is conditional on the satisfactory negotiation between Iberia and SEPI regarding non-financial terms associated with loans provided by SEPI. A Spanish newspaper said in December that the deferral would give Air Europa time to repay the state aid package. Iberia’s former boss Luis Gallego is now CE of the entire IAG group, making him particularly aware of the strategic rationale of the deal for IAG: to boost the Madrid hub with new connections to Latin America and generate cost and revenue synergies. “I am pleased that we have reached agreement with Globalia to defer payment until well into the expected recovery in air travel following the end of the pandemic and when we expect to be realising significant synergies resulting from the transaction,” Gallego said.<br/>
oneworld
The parent company of Malaysia Airlines, Malaysia Aviation Group, said it had obtained British court approval to proceed with a major component of its debt restructuring efforts. The approval allows the group to convene a creditors' meeting to consider a scheme. The outcome of the meeting will be reported back to the court at a sanction hearing on Feb. 22, the group said late Wednesday. The airline group said it had received overwhelming support from stakeholders for its 16b ringgit ($4b) restructuring. Part of the restructuring would be implemented by means of a scheme of arrangement to be proposed by its aircraft leasing subsidiary, MAB Leasing Limited, in a bid to win over the minority of creditors who had yet to indicate support for the proposal, it said. MAG said expects the court process and restructuring to conclude by the end of this quarter.<br/>