Skywest Airlines Ltd (SKYW.L, SXR.AX), the Australian and South East Asia regional airline, announced that the Foreign Investment Review Board of Australia or FIRB confirmed that it has no objections to the proposed acquisition of Skywest Airlines by Virgin Australia Holdings Limited (VAH.AX) pursuant to a scheme of arrangement under the laws of Singapore. This confirmation satisfies another condition for the proposed acquisition of Skywest.
The proposed acquisition still remains subject to certain conditions including the sanction of the Singapore High Court.
In October 2012, Skywest Airlines Ltd had said it received a proposal from Virgin Australia Holdings Limited to acquire 100% of the issued capital in Skywest.
As per the terms of the Proposal, Virgin Australia would offer Skywest shareholders consideration comprising of A$0.225 cash and 0.530 VAH shares in exchange for each SXR share. Based on VAH's closing price on 29 October 2012 the transaction consideration equates to A$0.4688 per SXR share.
In December 2012, Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd or VAH and Skywest Airlines Ltd announced that formal approval had been received from the Securities Industry Council of Singapore for the terms of the proposed acquisition of Skywest by VAH.
In January 2013, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced that it would not oppose the proposed acquisition of Skywest Airlines (Australia) Pty Ltd by Virgin Australia Holdings Limited.
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