Iberia wants pre-agreement on merger with BA
MADRID — Spanish carrier Iberia and British Airways, which began merger talks last year, want to reach a pre-agreement on the deal by the end of September, the daily newspaper ABC reported Tuesday.
Two meetings are scheduled to be held this month between representatives of the two airlines to try to iron out an agreement, the newspaper reported citing sources close to the negotiations.
Iberia refused to comment on the report.
The Spanish airline and BA announced in July 2008 they intended to merge in a planned all-share transaction that would create one of the biggest airlines in the world.
But since then the global economic downturn has hit both airlines, complicating the talks which have also been hampered by Iberia concerns over BA’s huge employee pension plan deficit.
Iberia changed its chief executive in July as Antonio Vazquez, a former Iberia board member who has significant experience brokering cross-border tie ups, replaced Fernando Conte, who resigned for personal reasons.
As the chief executive of Spanish tobacco company Altadis, Vazquez negotiated the sale of the company to Imperial Tobacco Group for 12.6 billion euros (18 billion dollars) and he also helped negotiate a joint venture with the Cuban government to sell cigars internationally.
