Iberia (airline) - Ownership

Ownership

On 3 April 2001, Iberia was privatised and included in the IBEX-35 stock index of the Madrid stock exchange. The core shareholders are: Caja Madrid– 23.45%, British Airways 13.2%, SEPI– 5.20%, El Corte Inglés– 2.90%. British Airways has raised its stake in Iberia by purchasing American Airlines' remaining shares, reportedly paying £13m for the small shareholding. This increases the total stake in Iberia to around 10% and preserves its two seats on the Iberia board. British Airways also has first right to purchase another 32% of Iberia's shares. Consequently any takeover of Iberia would require the approval of British Airways.

British Airways cannot acquire more than 49% of Iberia as bilateral air services agreements between Spain and non-EU countries require Iberia to remain in overall Spanish ownership (at least 51%) if the airline is to retain its rights to fly to these countries from Spain. While the new EU-US Open Skies deal on air services removes this requirement on all flights between the EU and US by EU airlines, this is not the case for the lucrative Latin American market on which Iberia relies for the majority of its profits.

On 29 July 2008, British Airways and Iberia confirmed they are in merger talks and on 12 November 2009, they confirmed that they had reached a deal. The merger was approved by European regulators in July 2010. Iberia will hold 45% of the newly formed company.

Iberia has 24,348 employees (at March 2007).