Air Europa concluded the sale of 26% of Turkish Airlines for 300 million euros and brought forward the repayment of the 475 million loan granted by the Sociedade Estatal de Participações Industriais (SEPI) during the pandemic by one year.
Negotiations with Turkish began before the summer and, following the acceptance of a binding offer by the Turkish company last August, the structuring of the operation was completed, which will involve immediate financing while regulatory and competition approvals are obtained.
The operation, which values Air Europa at around 1,175 million euros, was implemented through a convertible loan, which will be exchanged for the aforementioned participation of the Turkish airline in the capital of the Spanish airline, once all regulatory requirements have been met.
The Hidalgo family, through Globalia, will continue to be the company’s majority shareholder, while IAG will maintain its current 20% stake through the purchase of shares from Globalia, Air Europa said today in a statement.
The agreement with Turkish allowed Air Europa to cancel the ordinary and participatory loans from the Strategic Companies Solvency Support Fund (FASEE), as well as the accumulated interest, totaling almost 500 million euros, one year ahead of the established deadline.
After settling last May the 141 million euros, with the respective interest, of the bank loan received in 2020 with the participation and guarantee of the Official Credit Institute (ICO), Air Europa “now completes an important stage in the financial deleveraging process undertaken in recent years, confirming the success of the management strategy”.
Over this period, Air Europa paid the State around 70,000 euros per day in interest, which represents more than 97.2 million in total.
The company calculates that, in this way, it has paid the State more than 1.8 billion euros in the last five years in interest, taxes and airport fees, transporting more than 48 million passengers and operating more than 289,000 flights.
According to Air Europa, the 475 million euros from the SEPI loan “were essential not only to guarantee the full recovery of activity after the pandemic, but also to generate a very positive return in national economic activity”.
Thanks to him, “not only was it possible to preserve around 4,000 jobs, but also the creation of more than 600 new jobs, reaching the approximately 4,600 employees who are now part of the airline”.