Events after the balance sheet date
On 28 January 2015, BA entered into a business transfer agreement with its wholly-owned subsidiary Avios Group (AGL) Limited (“AGL”). This transferred certain parts of the BA Executive Club business, relating to the frequent flyer programme, to AGL in return for additional shares in the amount of £1.6 billion fully paid up Class A Shares in AGL.
BA’s existing holdings in AGL have been converted to Class A shares, while Iberia, which has entered into a similar transaction with AGL, received Class B shares in exchange for the transfer of the Iberia Plus programme to AGL. This has resulted in BA’s shareholding being reduced on 28 January 2015 from 100% of the existing AGL business to 86% of the combined customer loyalty business.
Following the business restructure, BA now no longer has the power to affect the returns of AGL as it now falls within the governance structure of IAG. The voting rights relate to reserved matters which exclude the power to control the financial and operating decisions in AGL. This meant, from the date of the transaction, AGL has been de-recognised as a subsidiary in January 2015 and is now recognised as an associate of the Group at the fair value of the retained interest. This is in accordance with the requirement of IFRS 10: Consolidated Financial Statements.
On initial recognition of the retained investment, the Group has recognised an investment in associate at a value of £1.6 billion with a resulting gain on loss of control of a subsidiary recognised below operating profit of £1.5 billion being recognised in 2015. This has been measured as the difference between the fair value of the remaining interest and the deconsolidated net assets of AGL.