Sir Michael Bishop, the chairman of Bmi British Midland, has been approached about a potential sale of his stake in the company by Jet Airways.(1/21/2008)
The report was filed by the Sunday Telegraph, citing a person familiar with the situation.
As per the information available, Jet showed an interest just before the Christmas holiday, alongside a Middle Eastern carrier, believed to be Emirates Airline, the London-based newspaper said. The two sides have held no formal meetings to discuss any possible offer, the Sunday Telegraph reported, citing the unidentified person familiar.
BMI owns 11% of the take-off and landing slots at London´s Heathrow airport, the newspaper said. Bishop owns 50% plus one share of BMI, with Germany´s Deutsche Lufthansa AG owning 30% minus one share and Scandinavia´s SAS, 20%.
"Under a shareholder agreement struck in 1999 when Lufthansa acquired its initial 20% stake in Bmi for ? 91.4m, Bishop and the German carrier have a series of "put" and "call" options that could determine Bmi´s future ownership. They can exercise these options at the same price per share that Lufthansa paid for its original stake. That values Bmi at ?457m and Bishop´s stake at ?229m, though any deal would be adjusted for inflation," reported the publication. "Bishop has until June 2009 to exercise his put option to sell his stake in Bmi to Lufthansa. The German flag-carrier has a short window to exercise a reciprocal call option, running from December 2008 to June 2009."
