International Airlines Group saw a downturn in its traffic figures in April, due to Easter falling in the previous month and a decision to concentrate on premium passengers.
Its traffic as measured in revenue passenger kilometres fell 5.6% compared to the same time last year, but premium traffic rose 1.8% while non-premium traffic fell 6.9%.
Its shares have edged up 0.1p to 281.5p , partly supported by a report that Qatar had approached the owner of British Airways and Iberia with an informal offer to buy the 12% stake owned by Spain's Bankia. The Spanish nationalised bank is putting its stakes in a number of companies up for sale, to help rebuild its capital base.
Credit Suisse said:
The FT has reported this morning that Qatar has sounded out IAG about acquiring Bankia's 12% stake in the company. An initial approach was reportedly made in 2012. We note that Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker has previously denied interest in acquiring Bankia's stake. Qatar Holding owns 20% of Heathrow airport with Al Baker one of its two board representatives.
Qatar has been repeatedly linked with acquiring Bankia's 12% stake, and this would not come as a surprise following Qatar Airways' decision last year to join IAG's oneworld alliance. An investment by Qatar would likely prove a positive for IAG, given Qatar's firepower to invest in partners and infrastructure to enhance the quality of IAG's global offering. However, we highlight that EU foreign ownership restrictions (49%) would limit the scope for Qatar to provide capital directly to IAG. We re-iterate that in our view the primary benefits of Qatar Airways joining oneworld include providing onward feed to IAG customers via Doha to markets including India/Australia (albeit via low-yielding double-connections), and potential reciprocal feed for IAG to the US or LatAm.
