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IAG seals bmi takeover
British Airways owner IAG announced a deal to buy German rival Lufthansa’s UK unit bmi for £172.5m in cash, and said jobs would go as part of an urgently-needed restructuring of the loss-making carrier.
Lufthansa has the option of selling the airline’s ‘bmi regional’ and ‘bmibaby’ units before the deal completes, and IAG will pay a significantly lower price if those businesses are offloaded, IAG said Thursday, unveiling details of a deal agreed in principle in November.
“Given the scale of bmi’s losses, there is an urgent need to restructure the business,” IAG chief executive Willie Walsh said in a statement.
“Unfortunately this will mean some job losses but we will secure a significant number of high quality jobs here in the UK.”