newstodate.aero
Aug 02, 2018 (newstodate): Latvia's airBaltic seems to have lost hopes for finding a strategic airline partner to build the foundation for future growth.
Instead, the carrier's CEO Martin Gauss has aired the prospect of announcing an IPO process within the coming year, according to an ATW interview.
-The state is determined to sell its majority stake in airBaltic, seeing the carrier's future better with a strategic airline partner that will allow us to develop our business potentials to the full, Martin Gauss, airBaltic CEO and President, said at a press briefing on December 1, 2016 - and the message was repeated at later occasions as well.
Earlier hopes for finding the ideal partner dwindled, however, and instead airBaltic has focused on streamlining its business and developing strategies to improve profitability and operational parameters to appeal to future investors.
According to its H1 2018 figures out now, the carrier has seen passenger volumes up by 20 percent, flight operations rising 13 percent, and revenues increasing by 19 percent, y-o-y, while no information to really assess its performance has been published on yield achievements.
Today, the Latvian state still holds 80 percent of the shares, with the remaining 20 percent in the hands of a Danish investor, Lars Thuesen, since April 2017 when he bought the company Aircraft Leasing 1 SIA, registered in Latvia on December 8, 2014, though which the investor Ralf Dieter Montag Girmes had held 20 percent of the stake in airBaltic since February 2016.
Instead, the carrier's CEO Martin Gauss has aired the prospect of announcing an IPO process within the coming year, according to an ATW interview.
-The state is determined to sell its majority stake in airBaltic, seeing the carrier's future better with a strategic airline partner that will allow us to develop our business potentials to the full, Martin Gauss, airBaltic CEO and President, said at a press briefing on December 1, 2016 - and the message was repeated at later occasions as well.
Earlier hopes for finding the ideal partner dwindled, however, and instead airBaltic has focused on streamlining its business and developing strategies to improve profitability and operational parameters to appeal to future investors.
According to its H1 2018 figures out now, the carrier has seen passenger volumes up by 20 percent, flight operations rising 13 percent, and revenues increasing by 19 percent, y-o-y, while no information to really assess its performance has been published on yield achievements.
Today, the Latvian state still holds 80 percent of the shares, with the remaining 20 percent in the hands of a Danish investor, Lars Thuesen, since April 2017 when he bought the company Aircraft Leasing 1 SIA, registered in Latvia on December 8, 2014, though which the investor Ralf Dieter Montag Girmes had held 20 percent of the stake in airBaltic since February 2016.