A majority was stake in Ukrainian International Airlines went to an unknown beneficiary.
Ukraine’s State Property Fund late in February fetched just over $36 million for a majority stake in one of the nation’s top two airlines.
Fund official said a 61.6 percent stake in Ukrainian Internatinoal Airlines, which operates 19 boeing passenger planes, was privatized at this price through a privileged sale to three existing minority shareholders.
According to reports, the airline’s biggest shareholder is now UIA BeteiligungGesellschaft. It remains unclear who the beneficiary shareholders are.
Austrian Airlines and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development had been shareholders of the Ukrainian airline, but sources and reports suggest they have exited the business.
An informed source close to Ukrainian International Airlines could not identify the new owners of the airline, but said they do not support plans to merge with Ukraine’s other leading airlines, namely Aerosvit and Dniproavia.
Those merger plans are pushed by Ukraine’s Privat business group, led by billionaires Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolubov.
The source also said that Ukrainian International Airline has big expansion plans for this year. It will increase in- and outbound flights between Ukrainian cities and of country destinations.
Ukrainian International Airlines President Yuri Miroshnikov was quoted by media recently saying that the carrier last year suffered a net loss – Hr 200 million on hr 2.4 billion in sales – for the first time in 10 years.
