Aeroflot receives proposal to sell airline Rossiya for 1 ruble, no sales plans at the moment - Savelyev
MOSCOW. April 26 (Interfax) - Aeroflot has received a proposal to sell its subsidiary airline Rossiya for 1 ruble, company CEO Vitaly Savelyev told journalists on the sidelines of the SkyService-2017 exhibition.
"There was one funny proposal which I'm not going to comment on - they proposed that we sell it [Rossiya] for a ruble. Other than smiles and laughter, it had no consequence," he said, not wanting to specify the origin of the proposal.
The CEO said that there is a great deal of discussion regarding the sale of Rossiya, but that Aeroflot has not broached this subject. "Rossiya has its rightful place in the Aeroflot group. We are not selling it; Rossiya accounts for a significant part of passenger traffic, 9 million last year and more this year. We do not see the necessity in selling it," Savelyev said.
At the same time, Savelyev said that "if there is someone who is ready to buy Rossiya, then that interested individual needs to 'above all, show themselves.' Secondly, the [value of the asset] is not in rubles, and [should be] a realistic valuation of a company with a fleet of 70 airplanes. Therefore, let's talk about the topic of who wants to buy it. And if there isn't anyone, then why are we bringing up this issue constantly?" the CEO said.
Aeroflot owns 75% minus one share in Rossiya while the city of St. Petersburg owns a blocking stake. In the fall of 2016 Dvorkovich ordered Russia's Transport Ministry to put together a proposal to sell Rossiya Airlines. The details of the proposals have not ever been disclosed. However Aeroflot announced that it did not consider the sale of the subsidiary to be timely.
Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov later said that the sale of the asset would be viable only after it returned to profit or "at least was not loss-making." According to Aeroflot's report to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Rossiya posted 3.79 billion rubles in net profit in 2016, up from a loss of 3.3 billion ruble loss in 2015.
The consolidated Rossiya Airline was created on the basis of three regional airlines of Aeroflot Group - Rossiya, Donavia and Orenburg Airlines. It began operations in March 2016 and works in the middle segment of airlines. It is based in St. Petersburg and has branches in Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and Orenburg.
