GERMANY: Lufthansa Acquires All Shares In Brussels Airlines

As of 2018 will Brussels Airlines be fully integrated into the Lufthansa Group and join the Eurowings Group. Brussels Airlines, including its attractive Brussels market, its well established Africa network and its advantageous cost structure which has allowed the leading Belgian airline to successfully compete with the tough low-cost competition in the Belgian market, will further strengthen the Lufthansa Group and Eurowings Group market position.

After the agreement of Lufthansa and the shareholders of SN Airholding on the modalities of the complete take-over, Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s Executive Board decided yesterday to exercise the call option for the outstanding 55 percent of the shares. The call option comes into effect by 31st of December 2016. The closing of the transaction will happen by the beginning of January 2017.

The price for the take-over of the remaining 55 percent of the shares had already been part of the agreement for the call option in 2008. The price for the acquisition of the remaining 55 percent of the shares is 2.6 million euro, which will be transferred to a consortium of 30 shareholders.

'Following the acquisition of the 45% share of SN Airholding eight years ago, we now want to take a next step in our already very solid and successful cooperation. As a longstanding shareholder and partner of Brussels Airlines, we are already closely linked to each other. Therefore we value Belgium and especially Brussels as highly attractive markets that perfectly complement our offer in the heart of Europe.

Brussels Airlines already has a very competitive cost structure and brings a well-established long-haul network, especially to and from Africa, to the Lufthansa Group portfolio. We also very much appreciate the high qualification, motivation and performance of the 3,500 Brussels Airlines employees'