High Court to rule on Aer Lingus bid to reduce its capital reserves

The High Court will make a final ruling next week on Aer Lingus’s bid to reduce its capital reserves by €500m so as to pay dividends to shareholders.

Aer Lingus asked the court yesterday to place no conditions on the €500m reduction while the trustees of its pension fund said any reduction should be conditional on the company maintaining non distributable reserves at a level that will deal with the €930m deficit in its workers’ pension funds.

Mr Justice Roderick Murphy last July refused to sanction the €500m reduction sought unless the airline provided for potential legal claims resulting from a deficit in a worker’s pension fund of about €930m.