OREANDA-NEWS. The Board of International Airlines Group (IAG) has today approved the settlement by Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España, Sociedad Anónima Operadora (Iberia) of the derivative transaction over its entire stake in Amadeus IT Holding, S.A. (Amadeus) that it entered into in August 2012 with Nomura International Plc (Nomura).

The derivative transaction comprised a collar arrangement around Iberia's total Amadeus shareholding of 33,562,331 ordinary shares. The transaction was a risk management exercise that allowed Iberia to protect and lock-in the value of its Amadeus shares held in August 2012 and retain any improvement in that price by up to 10 per cent.

As part of the settlement, Iberia will transfer (by way of set-off and without there being any physical movement of the shares) its ongoing interest in the shares to Nomura in exchange for EUR 578 million in cash, recording a gain of EUR 576 million before taxes. Settlement will occur in equal instalments over a 100 trading day period commencing on 7 August 2014.

IAG's gain on disposal in its income statement will be EUR 84 million before taxes (assuming the Amadeus share price remains above €18.15 through the settlement period). The value of the gross assets which are the subject of this transaction at 31 December 2013 was EUR 1,044 million.

The proceeds of the sale will strengthen Iberia's liquidity and provide funding for the airline's Transformation Plan.