Barclays trading in Aer Lingus shares

A broker that acts for the British group that recently made an approach to buy Aer Lingus has been dealing in the Irish airline's shares, according to documents filed with the stock exchange.

Shortly before Christmas the Aer Lingus board turned down an approach from British Airways’s parent, International Consolidated Airlines’ Group (IAG), that proposed buying the airline for a reported €2.20 a share, around €1.18 billion.

A notice filed with the Irish Stock Exchange shows that IAG's broker, Barclays bank, recently dealt in a number of contracts for difference (CFDs) tied to Aer Lingus's shares. CFDs are instruments which allow someone to bet on the movement of a particular stock without having to buy the shares in question.

The document shows that Barclays traded the CFDs at prices ranging between €2.23 and €2.2553. Around 80,000 securities were involved in six transactions.

Neither IAG nor Barclays would comment on the dealings, so it is not known if they were connected with the approach to buy Aer Lingus.

A spokeswoman for Barclays said the Irish Takeover Panel required it to disclose the dealings, as it is connected to IAG, but added that it could not go into any detail.