The newly elected President of Chile, Sebastien Pinera, owns 26.3% of LAN. I read yesterday he intends to sell that majority stake. The likely buyer of some if not all of Pinera's shares is the Cueto Family which holds 25.5%.

TAM is rumored to be in talks to take 19% of LAN using the proceeds from the IPO of their frequent flyer program, Multiplus, to finance part of the possible acquisition.

No word on how any alliances would be impacted.