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Iberia eyes October IPO
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June 1, 2000: 10:11 a.m. ET
Spanish government may sell state airline to investors later this year
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Spanish state airline Iberia may make its long-awaited stock market debut in October, ending concern that British Airways and American Airlines may sell their stakes.
"I think a very likely date would be the month of October," Chairman Xabier de Irala said. "The best moment has yet to be decided. Obviously it's a decision for the main shareholder to take."
British Airways had threatened to sell its stake if the Spanish government, owns 54 percent of Iberia, did not go-ahead with a share sale this year.
The government postponed several attempts to float the airline last year amid uncertain markets conditions.
The Iberia sale is expected to be Spain's biggest initial public offering of the year. The government valued Iberia at about 460 billion pesetas ($2.6 billion) when it sold a 40 percent stake last December to a group of core shareholders including British Airways (BAY), American Airlines - a unit of AMR Corp (AMR: Research, Estimates) - and five Spanish banks led by Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria. Employees own the remaining 6 percent.
Europe's ninth-largest airline also forecast an accumulated profit of 153.5 billion pesetas in the period 2000-2003 and said its business plan envisaged revenue of around 3.1 trillion pesetas during the period, implying sales growth of 8.4 percent a year. 
--from staff and wire reports
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Iberia
British Airways
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