Latvia’s government has agreed to offer Estonia and Lithuania the opportunity to purchase shares in Latvian airline airBaltic. Minister of Infrastructure Kuldar Leis (Reform) said no decision would be made until a concrete offer was put forward.
While the idea has been raised before, this is the first time the Latvian Ministry of Transport has been given the green light to make an offer.
The airline’s overall strategic goal has changed to profitability and ensuring airBaltic flights from Riga Airport, the ministry says, explaining the decision.
A full-fledged strategic partner would pay EUR 14 million and receive 5-10% of the company’s shares, depending on how airBaltic is valued when it goes public.
Andrejs Martinovs, chairman of the Board of airBaltic, said this summer would be the ideal time to approach neighboring countries before publicly listing in the autumn.
Until Latvia has made Estonia a concrete offer to acquire a stake in airBaltic, it is not possible to say whether the government is considering it, Minister of Regional Affairs and Infrastructure Kuldar Leis (Reform) has said on the “Otse uudistemajast” broadcast.
Estonia’s interest is that the airline continues to fly from Tallinn to many destinations, he says.
Leis said Latvia had been looking at how to move forward with airBaltic for a long time, including listing on the stock exchange. However, the recent change of management may delay this even further.
“Our response has been clear: make a concrete offer, tell us what the situation is, how to proceed, and then we can discuss it. As long as it’s, figuratively speaking, just talk across the table or through the media, there’s nothing to discuss. So we are waiting for their concrete offer,” he said.
He noted that if EUR 14 million would need to be paid for a stake in the airline and, in the future, the company would require an additional EUR 250 million to implement its long-term strategy, then all of this must be viewed as one package.
“There’s no point in speculating today whether Estonia is on board or on the plane – we’ll wait,” said Leis, adding that the government had not addressed the matter so far.
Prime Minister Kristen Michal (Reform) made similar comments.
“We do not have a more detailed offer of Latvia’s plans at the moment, we will certainly analyze and comment when we receive updated information,” he said. (ERR)