22:46 ' Ploymac I cannot conceive of the circumstance where the Aer Lingus management and Ryanair would be able to work harmoniously together...this is simply a reflertion of the fact that these organisations have been competing head be like merging Manchester United and Liverpool football clubs.
22:46 ' Ploymac In fact, the bid was opposed by a loose alliance representing almost 47 per cent of Aer Lingus shares. This included the Irish government, which still retained a 25.4 per cent holding, two investment funds operated on behalf of Aer Lingus pilots accounting for about 4 per cent of shares, and Irish telecom tycoon Denis O'Brien, who bought 2.1 per cent of shares deliberately to complicate Ryanair's move. A critical 12.6 per cent of the shareholding was controlled by the Aer Lingus employee share ownership trust(ESOT), which had the right to appoint two directors, and has a stake in future profits. Its members rejected the Ryanair offer by a 97 per cent majority vote.
22:47 ' Ploymac Having abandoned this bid due to the shareholder opposition and a blocking decision by the European Commission on competition grounds. Ryanair renewed its bid in December 2008, with an offer of €1.40 per share, a premium of approximately 25 per cent over the closing price. It proposed to keep Aer Lingus as a separate company maintaining Aer Lingus brand, to double Aer Lingus short-haul fleet from 33 to 66 aircraft and create 1000 associated new job over a five-year period. It claimed that if the offer was accepted, the Irish government would receive over €180 million and the ESOT members and other employees who owned 18 per cent of Aer Lingus would receive over €137 million in cash. However, in January 2009, when the offer was rejected by Aer Lingus management and by the ESOT and other parties. Ryanair decided to withdraw it.
22:47 ' Ploymac Aer Lingus fortunes continued to deteriorate, announcing losses for 2008 and projecting even worse for 2009. In July of that year its shares were trading at less than €0.50 . In April, its CEO Dermot Mannion resigned after controversy over a potential secret pay off decal in the event of a hostile takeover. While Ryanair did not have a scat on the board, it continued to denigrate Aer Lingus, forecasting a bleak future as a loss-makeing, subscale, regional airline. Meanwhile, the two airlines continued to compete vigor ously, especially within the Irish market.