Air France-KLM shareholders agree to Delta Air Lines stake deal

Thursday, 05 Sep, 2017 0

Delta Air Lines has got the go ahead from Air France-KLM shareholders to take a minority stake in the airline.

Delta recently announced plans to take a 10% stake in Air France-KLM along with Delta’s partner China Eastern Airlines which also agreed to buy a 10% shareholding.

Although there were noises from some shareholders the two airlines were getting it on the cheap, 94% agreed the equity investment.

Delta and China Eastern will each get a seat on the board of Air France-KLM in exchange for their stock purchase valued at about €375 million ($438 million) each.

George Mattson was named as Delta’s representative on the Air France-KLM board.

And here is where it gets complicated.

Air France-KLM will use up to one third of that money to invest in a 31% stake in UK based Virgin Atlantic, which is another of Delta’s strategic partners.

Delta already owns a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic.

The investment merry-go-round aims to build a formidable ‘four-way strategic joint venture’ Virgin founder Richard Branson said at the time.

"Our shareholders have largely approved the strategic step forward proposed to them. The partnerships to be finalized with China Eastern Airlines and Delta Air Lines are an integral part of the Trust Together project, which aims to resume the offensive and position Air France as the European pillar of the most integrated network of partners in the world," Jean Marc Janaillac, chairman and CEO of Air France-KLM, said.

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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.

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