Korean Air brings forward Asiana acquisition date to Dec. 11 (updated)

ASIANA AIRLINES

03/12/2024 08:26

(Adds context from paragraph 2)
       SEOUL, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Korean Air  003490.KS  said on
Tuesday it would complete its acquisition of smaller domestic
rival Asiana Airlines  020560.KS  by Dec.11, providing U.S.
competition regulators do not raise objections before then.
    The 1.8 trillion won ($1.3 billion) deal, first announced
four years ago, has been hampered by competition concerns. Data
from LSEG and Dealogic shows that the time taken from
announcement to completion would be the longest ever for an M&A
deal between airlines.
    The U.S. Department of Justice would be the last of 14
regulators to approve or de facto greenlight the transaction.
    The DOJ declined to comment.
    The previous closing date for Korean Air to take a 63.9%
stake in indebted Asiana had been Dec. 20. 
    

 (Reporting by Lisa Barrington, Hyunsu Yim, Heekyong Yang;
Editing by Christopher Cushing and Edwina Gibbs)
 ((Hyunsu.Yim@thomsonreuters.com;))