In seria difficolta', BT sta procendendo con istanza di fallimento
AirBaltic files for bankruptcy
By
Cathy Buyck | September 22, 2011
AirBaltic (BT) filed for legal protection from its creditors Wednesday and submitted a plan to the court for continued operations. The loss-making Latvian national airline is entangled in a destructive dispute between its two main shareholders, the Latvian state and Baltic Aviation Systems (BAS), the company controlled by the carrier's president and CEO, Bertolt Flick (
ATW Daily News, Sept. 8). The dispute centers on a capital injection, but is a culmination of years of tense relations and political wrangling. The Latvian state owns 52.6% of BT while BAS has 47.2%.
In a statement, Flick said that the government of Latvia, as a minority shareholder in the airline, “has neglectfully and repeatedly delayed any decisions regarding the capital increase” and that BAS has declared its willingness to cover the capital increase fully or proportionally together with the government of Latvia for the past six months. In order to come out of a stalemate, “BAS agreed to all government conditions on Sept. 16. On Sept. 20, the government again did not take a decision to participate in the capital increase of the airline, or to allow BAS to increase the capital unilaterally, but suddenly and surprisingly announced potential sale of its shares in the airline,” Flick said.
By initiating bankruptcy protection, Flick is attempting to prevent the Latvian government from interfering in airline decision making. As part of the procedure, an administrator is nominated to be responsible for the legal protection plan that all parties have to follow—including shareholders, management and the supervisory board. The administrator and the plan for continued operations must be approved by the court.
“The board of airBaltic is currently in negotiations with all the stakeholders of the airline,” Flick said. “All of them, except the government of Latvia, are ready to support the airline in the future. The legal protection plan, approved by the court, must be obeyed and will help to overcome the blockage created by the government of Latvia as a minority shareholder.” He added that the management will not change during the period of legal protection “and all the creditors of the carrier will receive the outstanding debts.”
During the first seven months of 2011, BT increased passengers carried to 1.97 million, up 7% from the year-ago period. The airline’s load factor gained 6 percentage points year-over-year, reaching 73%.
http://atwonline.com/airline-finance-data/news/airbaltic-files-bankruptcy-0921
p.s. eventualmente si potrebbe anche aggiornare il titolo