Air Berlin Mulls IPO Outside of Germany

Air Berlin GmbH, Europe's third- biggest low-fare airline, may avoid Germany as it considers a share sale, because the country's labor laws would give workers too big a say over strategy, Chief Executive Officer Joachim Hunold told Bloomberg News. Hunold is considering the sale of the entire Berlin-based company, which may raise as much as €1 billion ($1.24 billion) and enable the carrier to invest in new routes. Germany's so-called co-determination laws allow employee representatives to make up as much as half of a company's supervisory board, which oversees strategy and has the right to hire and fire executives at listed companies. "It would destroy everything I've built up if workers entered the boardroom," Hunold told Bloomberg in an interview. "Co-determination has had its day."