Flick takes on new partner

  • 2010-12-23
  • From wire reports

RIGA - Russian businessman Stanislav Kovtun has acquired a 50 percent stake in Baltijas aviacijas sistemas (BAS), which is a co-owner of Latvian national airline airBaltic, said Janeks Jelkins, deputy chairman of council at the company Cargo Avio, who now represents the new BAS shareholder on the company’s board, reports Nozare.lv. Cargo Avio board chairman Sergejs Fiscenko confirmed to Nozare.lv that BAS shares had been bought by his business partner Kovtun.

AirBaltic President Bertolt Flick was previously the sole owner of BAS, which owns 47.2 percent of airBaltic shares, with the balance of shares owned by the Latvian government. It is the Bahamas-registered Taurus Asset Management Fund Limited, represented by Kovtun, which has acquired the 50 percent share of BAS, for 9,654,000 lats (13.7 million euros).
BAS share capital is valued at 19,307,000 lats. Company representative Juris Petersons said that as a result of the sale of 50 percent of BAS shares to a new investor, the transaction signals further business development plans by BAS.
BAS became an airBaltic shareholder in 2009 when it bought the airline’s shares from SAS for 14 million lats.