The Croatian government has adopted changes to its decision to grant 33.7 million euros to Croatia Airlines in an attempt to stabilise the carrier prior to its privatisation. The airline received the sum in two tranches, one last year and the other earlier this month. The Croatian government has said the capital injection will now be treated as a shareholder loan. The grace period on the loan has been set to two years with a fixed annual interest rate of 2%. The Ministry for Sea, Transport and Infrastructure said other terms and conditions will be negotiated with Croatia Airlines. The European Commission, which has strict guidelines on state aid, said last October it was “in close contact with Croatian authorities” after the government approved the aid package. The burden of the loan’s repayment will fall onto Croatia Airlines’ new owner, if the company is successfully privatised, as planned, by June of this year.
This was the order coming from Europe.
ReplyDeleteThey will not allow OU to receive 33 mil EUR as Goverment's help and they will have to pay it back.
If not...
They will spend that money to pay debts. I do not see how they can pay back?
DeleteAs long as LO can buy Condor with state money and Alitalia keeps flying around , OU will be around and fine. Bigger things have to happen, if OU is going to pay anything back ;)
DeleteI'm sure Malev's mgmt thought the same. But Croatia is much more powerful than Hungary, right?
Deletelukavi šokci
ReplyDeleteOvo je bilo pod moranje a nikakvo lukavstvo.
DeleteDa je hrvatska Vlada odlucivala OU ne bi morala vratiti novac.
This could completely alter the outcome of the proposed sale. The company has just become 33.7 mil EUR heavier in terms of liabilities.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the fact they are doing it now could mean Air Nostrum and Aegean walked away from the sale? Adding 33 million in liabilities right before the sale would be pretty retarded and I doubt the government would do it.
DeleteOr there can be some financial mambo-jumbo paperwork so this will be considered as government investment in new join venture with potential buyer.
DeleteOr new buyer will formally pay this money back and government will find a way to return it back. Money flows in mysterious ways.
Who knows in the end, hopefully soon we find out more details.
DeleteThis will make selling of OU to potential investor terribly difficult
ReplyDeleteThis is actually very important piece of news.
ReplyDeleteIt could cause OU to go belly up and finish the same like Adria.
Doubt it will happen. OU is quite influential in EPP.
DeleteMore than Hungary?
DeleteFidesz is about to be kicked out of the EPP so I would say yes ;)
DeleteKeep hoping
DeleteWell this just killed any chance of selling the airline. Most likely what the management and those who get the kickbacks want.
ReplyDeleteHow do you think the management got what they wanted? Do you think they blackmailed the government into giving up on the privatization process?
DeleteFor years OUs management has been put in place to help swindle money like pretty much every state owned company by both major parties (SDP/HDZ). What was the figure recently released. 35 billion euros the Croatian government cant account for from the past 20 years?!
DeleteIt's time for Croexit.
ReplyDeleteThe EU should keep its nose out of internal affairs of OU!
Well, isn't a fair market equal to all EU players a pretty fundamental part of the EU market? So not OU or Croatian internal affairs at all. If anything, I think the EU is lax in enforcing these basic rules (think Alitalia).
DeleteIf Croatia wants to spend tax money on subsidising the country's air connectivity, there's the PSO scheme.
EU aviation market is designed to be fair to major players only.
Delete