The acquisition marks the beginning of a strategic partnership between the two companies and allows the state of Luxembourg to divest the stake it bought as part of a restructuring of Cargolux Airlines International SA in 2009, the two airlines said in a joint statement. Other state-owned investment groups in Luxembourg are also selling down their stakes.
Akbar Al-Baker, Qatar Airways’ chief executive, said last month that the company was negotiating an acquisition of one-third of Cargolux.
“Our investment in Europe’s leading cargo carrier Cargolux boosts our ambition to become one of the major players in air freight by 2015,” the company’s Chairman Sheikh Hamad Jassim Bin Jabr Al Thani said Thursday.
Frank Reimen, the CEO of Cargolux, said the two companies had identified “numerous synergies,” adding that the partnership should boost Cargolux’s earnings and benefit the Luxembourg economy.
Cargolux posted $59.8 million in profit last year, rebounding from a steep loss the previous year as the global economy improved and demand for air cargo increased.
It operates 16 Boeing 747-400 freighters, covers 90 destinations and employs more than 1,400 people worldwide.
