IAG thwarted as Niki returns to founder Lauda’s ownership

Despite the best efforts of British Airways’ owner, IAG, the purchase of Niki, the low-cost subsidiary of now defunct Air Berlin, has been secured by the airline’s founder, former F1 World Champion, Niki Lauda.
Several weeks ago, IAG had been announced as the successful bidder for the bankrupt Austrian airline, though at the time, insolvency proceedings were going through German courts. In a motion filed by consumer rights’ group Fairplane, these proceedings were subsequently moved to Austrian courts as there were concerns that the rights of passengers owed money by Niki would not receive fair treatment if insolvency for both Niki and Air Berlin were handled by the same German jurisdiction.
With the transfer of proceedings and Niki subsequently filing for insolvency through Austrian courts, the existing bid of €20m (£18m) and additional liquidity of up to €16.5m from IAG was overturned and it had to then be resubmitted through the appropriate channels.
This provided Niki Lauda, and his company Laudamotion GmbH, the opportunity to make a third, and subsequently successful offer for the stricken airline. From the very onset of the disposal of Niki’s assets, Lauda had expressed a strong interest in reacquiring the airline which he founded in 2003, and which he sold to Air Berlin in 2011. He made his first offer for Niki back in September last year. Laudamotion took over Amir Air, another Austrian Carrier, early in 2016.
The disposal of Niki had proved problematic from the onset. Originally, Germany’s flagship carrier Lufthansa had made a bid of €210 million for the Air Berlin asset, but an EU ruling which indicated that the bid was unlikely to be successful owing to concerns over unfair competition saw it withdrawn.
According to Niki’s administrators, Laudamotion had emerged as the best bidder in a transparent auction process. However, the final price remains undisclosed, and in an interview with local television, Lauda confirmed that an express agreement had been reached with the administrators not to reveal the sum being paid.