30% share of Montenegro Airlines on offer
The Montenegrin Government has announced the sale of a 30% stake in Montenegro Airlines. On Monday, the Government said that the nominal total value of the Montenegrin carrier amounts to 25.7 million Euros. All interested parties can send in their bids until December 15, 2010. Those interested must have had at least 5 years of experience in the aviation industry, a fleet of 10 aircraft and must have carried at least 2 million passengers in 2009. Such conditions immediately oust not only investment banks from purchasing the airline but also other airlines in the region such as Adria, Croatia Airlines or Jat. The Montenegrin Government has not set a starting price for the offered package of shares.
Last year, when there was talk of Montenegro’s sale, El-Al Israel Airlines expressed the most interest carrier. However, the Israeli national airline also requested the ownership of Podgorica and Tivat airports as part of the purchase, which was unacceptable for the Montenegrin Government at the time.
I have a feeling nothing will become of this...
ReplyDeletenot bad 25,000,000 euros for 30 % of YM , hmm this is intresting :)
ReplyDeleteThere is no minimum price, so €25m means nothing - and in fact Montenegro Airlines is probably worth less than zero due to its incredible losses.
ReplyDeleteHow can anyone buy anything from this airline that shows no transparency and no financial data on its operations.
ReplyDelete@Sam
ReplyDeleteDon't you think that anyone interested would obviously be granted access to the books of the airline?!
Let's look at the facts:
ReplyDelete1. In 2010, Easyjet expanded their services to Dubrovnik. There has been a steady trend over the past few years of cheap flights and LCCs expanding their services to Dubrovnik.
2. In 2010, Dubrovnik Airport completed considerable investments in expanding and upgrading its capacity.
3. The distance from Dubrovnik Airport to Montenegro is only 20 km.
Conclusion: if I were Montenegro Airlines, I would be very worried since there is no way in hell that they can compete with the likes of Easyjet or other LCCs landing in DBV. And one fine day, when the JAT/Montenegro duopoly between Belgrade and Podgorica/Tivat comes to an end, it will be the end of a major source of revenue for Montenegro Airlines.
Maybe that's true, but you have to consider that low cost airlines fly to DBV during summer season only.It is a competition in deed but only a seasonal one.
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI was referring to quarterly reports that state owned companies are expected to release to the public. This company is financed by taxpayers' money and so, its owners deserve to view those statment...right?
@Sam:
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree that taxpayers should be able to see the accounts of state-held companies, but that's not the issue here.
Montenegro Airlines is being offered to strategic competitors (ie. other airlines), who will have full access to the companies books..
The 30% won't be taken up this time around, either.
ReplyDeleteIs there any airline to which purchasing a share in YM is actually strategic or beneficial? The only place that might be interested is Russia, though one only has to look at how quickly they stuffed up MA to see it isn't a good alternative...
I heard inside news about two offer for YM.
ReplyDeleteOne from some Russion airline and one from Israel airline...
Didn`t say which one...
May be just rumors...