10/21/1986: British Airways Public Sale Campaign Kicks Off

DALLAS — Today, in 1986, The British government began an “aggressive high-tech” promotional campaign for the public sale of British Airways (BA).

The public campaign included Concorde flybys, laser light shows, and television ads. At the time, BA carried “more international passengers than any other carrier in the world.” The carrier was privatized and floated on the London Stock Exchange in February 1987.

The initial share offering was nine times oversubscribed, indicating strong investor interest. The specifics of the offering were as follows:

• A total of 720.2 million shares were offered.
• The shares were priced at 125 pence each.
• The shares were sold in two installments: 65 pence and 60 pence.
• The entire company was valued at £900 million at the time of the offering.

Based on these figures, we can calculate the total amount raised:720.2 million shares × 125 pence per share = £900.25 millionThis aligns with the reported valuation of £900 million for the entire company at the time of privatization.

Two-thirds of the shares were allocated to institutions, BA employees, and foreign investors, and the remaining third was offered to thousands of small British investors, a strategy in keeping with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s privatization program. 

More than double the expected half-million investors applied for the shares to be offered to the British public.

British Airways' lure had to do with the fact that the flag carrier had accumulated about US$580 million in pretax profits in the previous two years and had one of the world’s premier route structures. Another factor that made the public sale successful was a growing British interest in the stock market.

Following the sale of British Gas, thanks to another successful advertising campaign called "Tell Sid," the sale of the airline meant that almost a third of Britain's state-owned industrial sector had been sold into private ownership since Thatcher was elected on a campaign pledge of denationalization nearly seven before. 

During this initial period of privatization in the UK, almost half a million jobs were transferred from the public to the private sector.