Ryanair buys 16% of Aer Lingus, reveals takeover intent

Low-cost airline Ryanair has announced it has launched an offer worth €1.48 bn to buy Aer Lingus.

The Ryanair board has today announced its acquisition of over 16% of the issued share capital of Aer Lingus.

Ryanair is now set to make an all-cash offer of €2.80 per share for the issued share capital of Aer Lingus not already in the ownership of Ryanair.

This offer is conditional on obtaining at least a majority of the shares in Aer Lingus.

This cash offer values Aer Lingus at approximately €1.481bn and represents a premium of approximately 27% over last week's IPO share price of €2.20 per share and a premium of approximately 12% over yesterday evening's closing price for Aer Lingus shares of €2.51.

Speaking at the launch of the offer this morning, Ryanair's CEO, Michael O'Leary, said: "This offer represents a unique opportunity to form one strong airline group for Ireland and for European consumers.

"This offer, if successful, means both companies will continue to operate separately and compete vigorously in the small number of routes on which we both operate - currently around 17 of the approximately 500 routes operated by the two airlines.

"We believe the price of €2.80 to be an excellent offer. If accepted the Irish Government will realise over €500m from the sale of their Aer Lingus shares, and the employees will realise over €220m which equates to an average of over €60,000 per employee."