Lufthansa buys the remaining 55% of Brussels Airlines

[sn26567]

The Belgian shareholders are ready to go to court to fight the takeover as it is presented now by LH. But everyone should come at the table and discuss further to get a consensus. Nobody has interest to go to court.

LH can dictate its conditions: there is an agreement about it, even if the German directors of SN played a dirty game by refusing the reimbursement of the debt. Furthermore, if SN goes to court, LH can retaliate by fully integrating SN into EW and leaving only basic destinations out of Brussels, all the interesting ones being transferred to FRA.

So please, get around a table and find a consensus! Davignon himself proposes to postpone the decision to 14 October. A wise suggestion, to let tempers cool down.

[Bralo20]

The article however repeats that it's Carsten Spohrs wish to completely integrate SN in to EW, and that it actually doesn't make sense to maintain a seperate structure for an airline flying 'only' 49 planes...

In that sense EW should be integrated into SN since EW is the smaller airline

[Passenger]

Ladies and gentlemen, wellcome on board this Eurowings A330 from Brussels to New York. Passengers in our expensive Business Class, please note that meals and drinks, and the use of headphones, is not for free anymore.

No, it doesn't sound.

[Conti764]

The Belgian shareholders are ready to go to court to fight the takeover as it is presented now by LH. But everyone should come at the table and discuss further to get a consensus. Nobody has interest to go to court.

LH can dictate its conditions: there is an agreement about it, even if the German directors of SN played a dirty game by refusing the reimbursement of the debt. Furthermore, if SN goes to court, LH can retaliate by fully integrating SN into EW and leaving only basic destinations out of Brussels, all the interesting ones being transferred to FRA.

So please, get around a table and find a consensus! Davignon himself proposes to postpone the decision to 14 October. A wise suggestion, to let tempers cool down.

Do you really think that the majority of the shareholders (accept for BRU itself of course) care what happens to SN and their hub at BRU? If they can make some profit on their shares, they'll be all to happy to let LH do with SN whatever they want.

Accept for sentimental values (which are easily overthrown for the right amount of money) I see only Brussels Airport playing a tough game. But let's just imagine, for the sake of discussion, that LH shows tBAC that they'll integrate SN into EW and turn BRU into a major (long haul) hub for Eurowings, bringing in a huge amount of pax... I'm pretty sure BRU will fold pretty easily.

In the end, virtually nobody truly cares what name is on the fuselage, as long as they gain from the operation. And nobody with deciding power, cares about whether the pilots and flight attendants fly on Belgian SN contracts, or Austrian EW contracts...

As an aviation enthousiast I'd highly regret seeing SN disappear, even if EW would establish a mega hub at BRU, because contrary to SN in its latest years, EW still remains a bleak brand. But I remain realistic but above all, wait and see what will happen.

[Yuqu12]

The article however repeats that it's Carsten Spohrs wish to completely integrate SN in to EW, and that it actually doesn't make sense to maintain a seperate structure for an airline flying 'only' 49 planes...

In that sense EW should be integrated into SN since EW is the smaller airline

Not exactly: if LH can integrate the part of Air Berlin into EW before SN, EW is bigger than SN and SN is the smaller airline. Perhaps that's why LH is taking over a part of Air Berlin...

[sean1982]

The article however repeats that it's Carsten Spohrs wish to completely integrate SN in to EW, and that it actually doesn't make sense to maintain a seperate structure for an airline flying 'only' 49 planes...

In that sense EW should be integrated into SN since EW is the smaller airline

I could say ... told you so (for about 2 years) but I wont cause I think this is really really sad

Sean out ...

[Bralo20]

So, anyone has an idea when some news will be released about SN/LH/EW?

[Airbus2016]

The only thing I know is that Gustin has to accept the turnover or has to leave the company. Said by Carsten Spohr...

[Airbus2016]

I mean takeover...

[Bralo20]

From what I heard in the rumour mill is that Carsten Spohr is virtually the only party that fights for integrating SN into EW, even (at least a part of) the LH board doesn't agree with this and wants to keep the SN brand.

Wonder why Carsten Spohr is so determined to keep pushing the EW wagon... Oh wait right, it's his personal little project and it would look bad for him if EW was failing (which it does at the moment).

[Conti764]

From what I heard in the rumour mill is that Carsten Spohr is virtually the only party that fights for integrating SN into EW, even (at least a part of) the LH board doesn't agree with this and wants to keep the SN brand.

Wonder why Carsten Spohr is so determined to keep pushing the EW wagon... Oh wait right, it's his personal little project and it would look bad for him if EW was failing (which it does at the moment).

With al due respect, but I find this hard to believe. If the LH board really wants to retain the SN brand, Spohr wouldn't have a choice but to give in, since it is the board who sets out the way to follow and it's the executive who has to follow.

[Bralo20]

With al due respect, but I find this hard to believe. If the LH board really wants to retain the SN brand, Spohr wouldn't have a choice but to give in, since it is the board who sets out the way to follow and it's the executive who has to follow.

That's why I wrote "rumour mill" It's just something I heard through the grapevines. Guess we'll know tomorrow.

Despite what the rumours are I think at this point the chance that the take over will be blocked by the current owners are reasonably high.

If the rumours about the 2,6 million and the blocked repayment of the loan last year are correct it could get messy. From the latest public information available the majority of the current owners are against the take over, obviously due the fact that they feel screwed by LH (and for a few (with Belgian pride) also the fact Spohr wants to kill the SN brand but compared to the money that's virtually a non issue). Technically it seems LH doesn't need the approval to buy the remaining 55% but at this point LH has a lot to loose. If they go ahead and buy SN for peanuts and kill the SN brand you can rest assure that several shareholders will take LH to court for what they did last year when they blocked the payment of the loan. And this can get messy... LH has a reasonable reputation at this point, a reputation that can be ruined by a court battle that will likely go on for years, something that can hurt LH. So for LH to make the take over a success they probably need to put (a lot) of water in their wine. We'll probably see tomorrow how much water they had to put in their (delicious Riesling) wine.

[Conti764]

If they go to court over this, rest assured that this is going to last for years knowing how fast Belgian justice works. During those years, LH can still retain it's 45% shares and see what happens, but SN might grow too big and too important to just be digested by Eurowings. I assume LH knows this as well and therefore tries to negtiate terms with the other shareholders, so they can keep control over what happens next.

[Flanker2]

If we may believe the media reports, this is shaping up to be a hostile take-over by LH.
Interesting times, but I'll still believe it when I see it.

You do know definition of "hostile takeover"? This is not a hostile takeover as the management agrees with the takeover (or better already agreed when they gave LH the option to purchase the remaining shares). Only the current shareholders may object to the takeover, but they don't have much choice.

After reading the last few comments on this forum, do you still think that I'm wrong?
The management doesn't seem to be agreeing, because the management still is Belgian and is there to represent all the interest within the company, a majority of Belgian interests.

Very sneaky of LH to have put in place agreements with individual small shareholders.
This means that they're going to have a majority pretty easily and can go ahead with their plans, no matter what the other Belgian shareholders do. Maybe the only thing that the other shareholders can do at this point is to get as much money as they can out of it by holding on to their shares and going to court.

Sorry but whatever the rumor mill is telling you about Spohr being obsessed with EW, I fear that it matches my analysis. That's quite clearly how he sold himself to become the LH CEO IMO, his legacy.

IMO 3 predictable scenario's for tomorrow
1. Hostile take-over: LH exercises its options and moves ahead with the shares from the small Belgian minority shareholders who agreed to give up their shares according to the options contract, acquiring a majority stake and doing whatever they want. At which point, the only line of defense against a EW integration will be the staff and the unions.
2. Moral scenario: LH exercises the options and gets a majority share, but postpones the full take-over until all shareholders are happy.
3. Friendly scenario: LH postpones everything and pays up quite a premium for the carrier next year (150+million?) or shareholders agree to a last minute deal with goodwill from LH (albeit cash in a plastic bag)

Also, I don't exclude that LH won't setup a firesale for SN's longhaul arm to another airline group, effectively splitting the airline. For instance IAG could be interested in SN's Africa network only and use the Vueling BRU base as a feeder for those flights. You might think that it's crazy but actually it's not, because the Africa business doesn't fit under LH unless operated out of FRA or MUC, and it doesn't fit under EW, but it fits perfectly under BA and VY could use the traffic to reinforce their weak base in BRU.
This scenario only makes sense if BA/IAG are offering LH a good 9 figure sum for the lot.


In any case, I continue to predict another extension.

[Klausenburg]

Bonsoir a tous! Goede avond allemaal! I followed this discussion closely, and I decided that now it's the time to join. I'm Romanian but I lived for a while in Belgium. We are having a very animated discussion on a Romanian Aviation Forum (http://forum.fly-ra.com/) about the takeover of SN. However, as some of the members live in Germany and also follow german forums, they seems to have a different take. Anyway. I'm looking forward to debate this subject. Also, i must mention that the way SN managed to become successful could be a good exemple for Tarom...

[sn26567]

Welcome to Luchtzak, Klausenburg. We'll certainly be interested in your opinion about the SN takeover.

And, by the way, you seem to have an interesting discussion about SN in your forum: http://forum.fly-ra.com/threads/brussel ... 274/page-3

[travellover]

Hold our breath on D Day (?).
Many pending questions.
Lucrative business class cannot disappear because AFI and long haul model is nautical miles away from Eurowings LCC model.

[Treeper]

any idea on when to expect something (press release or whatever)?

[CTBke]

usually with the 1PM news or the 7PM news

[Boeing767copilot]

Don't forget that LH is stock exchange listed, that means no news before closure.