BA may lose Footsie status
UK airline British Airways is poised to be booted out of the prestigious FTSE 100 Index in next week’s reshuffle.
The group, hit hard by the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US, has seen its shares slump over the past year as profits and sales fell away.
The tourism and travel slump forced it to axe thousands of jobs, cut capacity and drop routes as it struggled to cope with the fall in demand.
But in May it reported losses of £200m – its worst results and first full-year losses since it was privatised 15 years ago.
A year ago, BA’s shares were worth 270p but yesterday they closed up 3.25p at 135p, giving it a market value of £1.4bn and making it one of three candidates tipped for relegation.
Expected to join BA in the FTSE 250 is music group EMI.
It has seen its value slump in recent months after profit warnings and an embarrassing compensation payout to Ken Berry, former chief executive of recorded music.
It was also hit by a multi-million payout to end its recording contract with singer Mariah Carey.
Even buoyant sales of Coldplay’s album A Rush Of Blood To The Head has not saved it from expected demotion.
Shares have slumped from a high of 390p this year to just 168.75p today, valuing it at £1.4 billion.
International Power, which has seen shares fall amid continued low electricity prices in the UK market, is the third likely candidate.
Replacing them are expected to be packaging firm Rexam, healthcare group Alliance UniChem and engineering group Tomkins.
The expectations are based on yesterday’s closing prices.
The reshuffle will be based on Tuesday’s closing prices and announced on Wednesday. The changes will take effect on September 23.
