Amadeus has moved quickly to deny questions marks over its continued majority ownership of European online travel agency Opodo.
The global distribution system and technology provider currently holds a 99.72% share in Opodo after buying out the founding airlines including British Airways, Air France, Alitalia, Iberia, KLM, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, Austrian Airlines and Finnair.
However, during the months before the Amadeus IPO last month it was widely speculated in Europe and North America that Amadeus was hoping to offload Opodo either ahead of the listing.
If this scenario did not happen, Amadeus was believed to be willing accept offers immediately after the publicly owned shares appeared on the stock exchanges of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Bilbao.
Or this is what the growing volume of rumours began to speculate.
A few weeks on and Amadeus officials say there is no truth to suggestions that Opodo was up for sale before the IPO took place.
Furthermore, and a pleasant shot in the arm for Opodo, perhaps, is a firm commitment to continue with its majority ownership of the agency.
There are “no plans for doing so”, an official says when asked whether Amadeus intends on selling Opodo post-IPO.
[...] Amadeus happy with Opodo ownership as rumour mill turns [full story] [...]