Fusiones y Adquisiciones

💰 Ávoris and CDV abandoned a potential merger aimed at creating Spain's largest air consolidator with a business volume exceeding €230 million. After months of negotiations and at least one formal proposal from Ávoris, the parties could not find mutual grounds for the project. Ávoris will now focus on Welcomefly, launched in late 2024, and has expanded through acquisitions like Geoclick in 2022 and Vista Travel in March 2024. CDV, growing at double-digit rates with a 30% increase in Q1, aims for an Ebitda between €1-1.2 million by 2025, up from €700,000 in 2024.

🛫 Heathrow Airport, Europe's prime airport, was halted due to a power plant fire last Thursday, early in the morning. The airport's director, with an annual salary of around 5 million euros, delegated closure decisions to his deputy. The UK's Energy Security and Net Zero Minister ordered an investigation by Ofgem, which assigned the National Energy System Operator to report initial findings within six weeks. Despite no terrorist involvement, the Police's anti-terrorist squad with heavily armed teams responded to the incident.

🛫 Travel Live (Nautalia), with Rafael García Garrido at the helm and Springwater as the major shareholder, continues to attract interest from potential buyers, including World2Meet (W2M) and Ávoris, which bid in 2022. The company, after clearing its debt with SEPI and returning to profits, is on the radar of Certares and other funds. Despite buyer interest, Travel Live focuses on its roadmap to compete with Spain's top travel groups and plans to double its Ebitda from €20 million in 2024 within four years.

🏨 SPV Britania recently acquired 100% of Hotel Occidental Roca Negra, previously holding 51%, through a mezzanine financing deal worth €4.95 million via Urbanitae, a crowdfunding platform. Located in Villa de Agaete, Gran Canaria, the four-star hotel has 140 rooms, was built in 2010, and has been operated by Grupo Barceló since 2022. This marks the first hotel financing for both One Investment and Urbanitae, offering an alternative to traditional bank financing for the tourism sector’s asset expansion and consolidation.

🛩 Boeing surpassed Airbus in airplane production in January and February. The company's CFO, Brian West, announced on Wednesday that Boeing could meet the government's production cap of 38 planes per month, triggering a 6% increase in stock value. Boeing is also advancing with 5 B787 deliveries per month, planning to raise this figure along with sales of the 737Max, Boeing's best-selling aircraft. Despite recent existential crisis levels, Boeing is not as affected by supply chain issues as Airbus.

✈ Lufthansa faced financial losses last year due to an outdated fleet and delays in new aircraft service entry. The airline is working on introducing Allegris business class seats, which are already installed on some A350 units but not yet certified for the 787. With summer service in mind, Lufthansa considers flying the 787s with some new seats unoccupied to circumvent certification delays. Carsten Spohr, the group's CEO, cited ongoing manufacturer bottlenecks expected to last through the decade. Of the 45 Boeing aircraft meant to be operational last year, 15 are 787s now starting to be delivered. Lufthansa cautiously anticipates flying some of these planes in summer with blocked seats and expects 26 new aircraft this year.

✈ Qatar Airways currently serves 50 million passengers annually and aims to reach 80 million by 2030 through an extensive purchase of aircraft from Airbus and Boeing. However, the company's top executive, Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, surprisingly announced that this growth will cease once the maximum capacity of Doha is reached, as the airline commits to maintaining quality service without further expansion, in contrast to competitors who have sacrificed service quality for growth.

🛫 The Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) authorized Ávoris's acquisition of Dit Gestión on February 7, recognizing significant horizontal overlap in the management groups market but seeing no competition risks due to numerous operators, some sizable, and services offered outside the market with no significant entry or expansion barriers. Dit Gestión now joins Ávoris's Geo Travel Partner, catering to retail travel agencies' group management.

🛫 CNMC approved Geo Travel Partner (Ávoris subsidiary) and DIT Gestión concentration operations in February. Ávoris, owned by Grupo Barceló, offers wholesale and retail travel agency services, group management, air and road transport, and gift boxes through subsidiaries, including Geo Travel Partner specializing in group management for retail travel agencies. DIT Gestión provides retail and wholesale travel agency services. The merger leads to significant horizontal overlap in the management group market but poses no competition risk due to numerous operators, alternative service providers outside the market, and no significant entry barriers or vertical market closure incentives.

📍 Air Baltic, a Latvian airline, lost €120 million in 2024 despite a record revenue of €748 million, a 12% increase from the previous year. Passenger numbers rose to 8.3 million. The losses stemmed from Pratt & Whitney engines on their A220 aircraft requiring extensive checks, leading to the cancellation of 4,670 flights. The airline is expanding operations in Estonia and Lithuania and remains optimistic about its future, including a potential London stock exchange listing within the year.