Red Wings chief hopes Ilyushin Finance acquires 74% stake before year-end
DOMODEDOVO (Moscow region). Nov 16 (Interfax) - Ilyushin Finance Company's acquisition of a 74% stake in Russian airline Red Wings will close before the end of the year, Red Wings chief Yevgeny Klyucharev said.
"We are in the process. I hope that the shareholder agreement and all procedures are completed before year-end," he told journalists, adding that the shares were being used to convert debt the airline owes on its Tu-204 aircraft leases.
It was reported earlier that the debt might be converted via a supplementary share issue. Red Wings owed IFC more than 2.2 billion rubles as of the end of last year. Red Wings was owned by Alexander Lebedev's National Reserve Corporation until 2013, when it was sold to a group of investors: Sergei Kuznetsov and Mark Garber's GHP Group.