Iberia and British Airways shareholders to vote on merger next week; airberlin down
Iberia (+4.5%) rose on a day of mostly gains for European airline shares on Friday (19-Nov-2010). The carrier gained on news British Airways (-0.9%) and Iberia's shareholders will vote on their GBP5 billion merger on 29-Nov-2010. The merger is widely expected to gain shareholder approval, which will see the formation of holding company International Airlines Group, which will oversee a staff of 57,000 and a fleet of 408 aircraft.
See related CAPA Profile: Privatisation and Ownership
Spanish LCC Vueling (+3.7%) also advanced for the session, despite Spain's IBEX 35 declining 0.5%.
Elsewhere, Norwegian (+6.6%) also continued to gain after last week expanding its contract with Star Tour. Eurofly (+4.5%) was also up.
airberlin (-2.7%) and Dart Group (-2.5%) meanwhile declined for the day, despite both reporting improved financial results the day prior. airberlin reported a 7.5% improvement in net profit for the three months ended 30-Sep-2010, to EUR135.9 million. The result was on a 5.0% rise in revenue, to EUR1241 million. Dart Group reported a 39.0% year-on-year improvement in net profit for the six months ended 30-Sep-2010, to GBP28.0 million. The result was on a 25.0% rise in revenue, to GBP340.4 million.
See related CAPA Profile: Financial Results
Europe selected airlines daily share price movements (% change): 19-Nov-2010
Source: Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, Yahoo! Finance & Reuters