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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Thursday, 28.03.2024, 14:59

BAS' actual beneficiaries - Flick and Russian individual

Alla Petrova, BC, Riga, 22.09.2011.Print version
The private shareholder of the national airline airBaltic, Baltijas aviacijas sistemas (BAS), has sent a letter to Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis (Unity), revealing the company's actual beneficiaries - the airline's president Bertolt Flick and a private individual from Russia, as LETA has just found out.

BAS has informed the prime minister that the letter is confidential.

 

It was previously announced that the Bahama-based company Taurus Asset Management Fund Limited, which owns a 50% stake in BAS, actually belongs to Russian billionaire Vladimir Antonov.

 

As reported, yesterday BAS promised to inform Dombrovskis about the company's actual beneficiaries.

 

At the moment, the government is at an emergency meeting regarding the current situation at airBaltic.

 

The state should consider terminating shareholders' agreement with the national airline airBaltic, and, as the airline's majority shareholder, take over its management, LETA was informed by All for Latvia-For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK co-chairman, former Justice Minister Gaidis Berzins.

 

As reported, yesterday, airBaltic turned to Riga District Court with an application for legal protection proceedings. LETA has information that the application has been registered, but the court has not yet decided whether to accept it.

 

The airline's president Bertolt Flick said that the government now would not be able to block any airBaltic decisions; furthermore, during the legal protection proceedings, airBaltic management will remain unchanged.

 

Berzins pointed that, in this situation, the state's policy must be slightly more aggressive. The politician believes that the state can unilaterally terminate the shareholders' agreement due to the airline's excessive losses. European agreements allow for such possibility.

 

The former justice minister also explained that it is possible to replace the airline's management during the proceedings, and the court's administrator only supervises the process. However, it is true that, at the moment, the government cannot block the airline's decisions.

 

According to Berzins, the previous flight cancellations and creditors' claims indicated about the airline's financial difficulties. However, the legal protection proceedings does not necessarily mean that the airline has gone bankrupt.






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