British Airways owner IAG has ended its interest in low-cost carrier Norwegian, saying that it will sell its remaining stake in the firm.
Last year, IAG took a 4.61% stake in Norwegian, bought with the intention of launching a full bid.
But on Thursday, the firm said that it does not intend to make an offer for Norwegian and will sell its stake in the company.
The firm said in a brief stock market update: “International Airlines Group (IAG) confirms that it does not intend to make an offer for Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (Norwegian) and that, in due course, it will be selling its 3.93% shareholding in Norwegian.”
IAG’s original holding has been diluted since it first made its stake public in April last year.
Prior to Thursday’s announcement, Norwegian had rejected two takeover offers from IAG on the basis that they “undervalued” the firm.
Norwegian has been the subject of intense takeover speculation of late, with Germany’s Lufthansa also expressing an interest.
The carrier has expanded rapidly over the last 12 months, ordering several aircraft to serve a raft of new routes.
However, while the carrier expanded capacity by 34% last month, the number of kilometres travelled by paying passengers rose just 24%, below forecasts.
The airline’s load factor, a key metric of how many seats are sold per flight, fell from 84.6% in December 2017 to 78.6%.
Norwegian has also said that financial results for 2018 will be hit by technical issues with its Trent 1000 engines, supplied by Rolls Royce.
The 2018 numbers also show that Norwegian reported its highest ever passenger figures in a single year, with more than 37 million using its services, as the firm launched 35 new routes.
The company carried 37.34 million passengers in 2018, an increase of 13%. The full-year load factor stood at 85.8%, down from 87.5% in 2017.
The firm has shaken up the long-haul market by offering flights at knockdown prices.
Some of its most popular deals have included £99 flights from Edinburgh and Dublin to New York.
