Aer Lingus challenges ruling giving Ryanair all-clear for new bid in August

Aer Lingus has launched a High Court challenge against a ruling by the Irish Takeover Panel that could allow Ryanair to make another bid for the national carrier by August of this year.

The action arises out of Ryanair’s failed €694m bid to win control of Aer Lingus. That offer was formally tabled in late Jul 2012.

Last February, the bid was blocked by the EU Commission.

The commission said the proposed merger would harm consumers by creating a dominant company on the 46 routes where the carriers are currently competing.

Last week, the Irish Takeover Panel ruled that if Ryanair decides to make another offer for Aer Lingus, it must wait until August of this year, 12 months after the bid was first tabled.

The panel, which is the body responsible for monitoring and supervising takeovers and other relevant transactions in relevant companies in Ireland, prohibits bidders from making a further offer for a public company within a year of the date on which their original offer has lapsed.

Aer Lingus disputes that ruling.

It says that the 12-month period starts from February of this year, when the EU Commission decided to block Ryanair’s offer.

Yesterday, when the matter was briefly mentioned before the High Court, Paul Sreenan SC, for Aer Lingus, said his client wants to have the Takeover Panel’s decision judicially reviewed.

Mr Sreenan said that the Takeover Panel’s decision was “wrong in law”, adding that Aer Lingus is seeking an order from the court quashing the Takeover Panel’s decision.

It was Aer Lingus’s case that Ryanair cannot make another bid to take over Aer Lingus until February of next year at the earliest, Mr Sreenan added.

Ryanair and its subsidiary, Coinside Ltd, through which the bid for Aer Lingus was made, are notice parties to the action.

Mr Justice John Cooke, noted Aer Lingus’s intention to seek permission to bring judicial review proceedings, adjourned the matter to June 10.

Ryanair’s offer was its third attempt to take over Aer Lingus.

The Government, which holds a 25% stake in Aer Lingus, has opposed the takeover bid.

Ryanair, Aer Lingus’s biggest shareholder witha 30% stake, first tried to take over Aer Lingus in 2006 but was blocked by the EU Commission.

Ryanair dropped its second bid in 2009.