Merger Virgin Express (VEX) / SN Brussels Airlines (SNBA)

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » 07 Oct 2004, 18:29

sn26567 wrote:If you did that mistake, Virgin Holdings will buy back your shares, probably for much less than you bought them

We made that mistake

Bye my precious money, I hope you enjoy it Mr Vex.

Flybe · Post by **Flybe** » 07 Oct 2004, 18:51

Virgin Express press release: http://www.virgin-express.com/downloads ... 041006.pdf

P.3 at the bottom: Virgin will offer an exit strategy (read: you need to sell your shares) of 1€ per share. After that VEX will be delisted from Euronext. More information is promised to follow before the end of 2004.

Quite much usefull information about it in the press release.

So count how many shares you have, and you know immediately how much you will earn on it.

Greets,

Pieter

Post by **sn26567** » 08 Oct 2004, 08:56

It's a pity that Virgin will buy back the shares. It would have been an opportunity for the general public to invest in SN Brussels Airlines after the merger.

But nothing can compel you to sell the shares: you will than become a shareholder of SN AirHolding II, together with Fortis, KBC, Electrabel, Solvay, and others...

Flybe · Post by **Flybe** » 09 Oct 2004, 17:22

Hmm, i'm not sure, but i think they can force you to sell them the shares (however, i don't know if that is the case here). But to be sure i should first have to take a look in my economics books from university (i can't do that now, i'm in Warsaw) and also read the press release of Virgin again (the computer i'm currently using doesn't have acrobat reader installed).

But i think that if Virgin buys the shares themselves, in order to destroy those shares after the delisting, they will be able to buy them from you. Once again, i'm not sure about this. And even if you can do what Andre says, you're better of selling them now. Don't forget that it will be very hard selling them later, as they are not listed on a stock exchange anymore, and you would be a very minor shareholder.

Anyway, you will probably get a letter of virgin with their offer to buy back the shares (or you can print the press release from virgin). I advise you to take this letter to your bank and ask for some financial help overthere.

Greets,

Pieter

rwy25r · Post by **rwy25r** » 09 Oct 2004, 22:01

Very sad day for Belgian aviation, a company with a relative long history (founded 1996) and a very efficient and lean and mean operation leaving the scene, being absorbed by a far less efficient competitor (just compare the work forces) , who just happened to sit on a pile of cash which was by no means whatsoever brought about by its airline activities ... Let there be no illusion, in less than a year from now VEX will all have but disappeared.

rwy25r

Post by **sn26567** » 10 Oct 2004, 09:44

Flybe wrote:Hmm, i'm not sure, but i think they can force you to sell them the shares

True! They can make what is called a squeeze-out. But for that they must have at least 95% or 98% or 99% of the shares (I don't remember the exact number, so don't shoot me for that!).

Flybe · Post by **Flybe** » 14 Oct 2004, 22:46

Trends wrote this week: Together, VEX and SNBA ask for 44% of all slots at BRU for the coming winterseason.

Also, to conclude the value of VEX and SNBA, the common methods of valuation were not used. VEX has a lot of "goodwill" because of it's extensive passenger "basis", although it makes losses, and also because they manage to keep competition away from BRU (and they have good slots). That is why they were brought in at a bookvalue of 54 million €.

Greets,

Pieter

Buzz · Post by **Buzz** » 15 Oct 2004, 00:32

VEX offers €1 a share, the same as the costed when offered, but they say it's a good offer because they do not take into account all the losses VEX made during that time...
3 days ago the late night news reported VEX stock going down 5%, to 1,1, so they are still overrated on the market it seems...

Freiheit · Post by **Freiheit** » 15 Oct 2004, 12:11

market rather expects a better offer from vex.

TWA · Post by **TWA** » 18 Oct 2004, 23:48

I have been such a fool. A few years ago I bought 400 vex shares at 6.40 euro, because I was told that they were going up to 19 euro. (I still remember the time when they went up to almost 75 euro in 1997 and 19 euro seemed a reasonable goal to me)

So now I only get 400 euro back. At least I learned from my mistakes:
I will NEVER INVEST IN AVIATION again. The only people making money with aviation are people working in this field.

TWA

Flybe · Post by **Flybe** » 19 Oct 2004, 00:20

I will NEVER INVEST IN AVIATION again.

If you want my advise: if you aren't a specialised economist (and even they can't predict the stock exchange), stay away from the stock exchange in general. It is very hard to make money there.

To say it with a qoute of my former professor, Freddy Van den Spiegel (chief economist Fortis): "The best way to make a small amount of money at the stock exchange is to invest a large amount of money and to wait a few months..."

We did a kind of stock exchange game once, with fictive money, and trying to "predict" the stock market with various techniques. I learned one thing: Stay away from the stock market!

Greets,

Pieter