Korean Air and Eva Air have dropped out, but IFC found new potential investors
Privatisation or a capital increase process for Croatia Airlines enters the second round, and three new international flight operators are now expressing interest in our national airline, Večernji list reports on November 23, 2015.
As we have already reported, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group has been searching for new strategic partners or majority owners of our national flag carrier airline on behalf of the Croatian Government. Since the beginning of 2015, IFC has contacted global airline companies to see whether there is any interest. In the very beginning, Korean Air and Eva Air were most often mentioned as possible buyers since they sent letters of intent in the first round, but in the meantime, they both dropped out of the privatisation process.
Representatives of IFC re now intensifying their negotiations with the Greek, Turkish and German flag carrier airlines in order to define the exact method in which they wish to invest in Croatia Airlines.
According to Večernji list Aegean wants to buy the entire company while Lufthansa is more in favour of a merger, asin the case with Austrian Airlines. Given that Aegean and Lufthansa are both companies coming from EU member countries, there is no limit to their ownership stake in Croatia Airlines, while Turkish Airlines, coming from a non EU country would only be allowed to purchase 49% of company shares.
