UPDATE 1-Air Berlin welcomes Blavatnik as investor - paper
April 6th, 2008 | by admin |(Adds sources on complications over stake transfer)
FRANKFURT, April 6 (Reuters) - Air Berlin (AB1.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) wouldwelcome billionaire investor Len Blavatnik, who may take a 19percent stake in the German airline, as a shareholder, ChiefExecutive Joachim Hunold told the Tageszeitung newspaper.
Hunold said Blavatnik “obviously is interested in along-term engagement” in remarks released by the newspaper onSunday ahead of publication on Monday.
Air Berlin said on Friday that Russian-born industrialistBlavatnik had agreed to acquire a 19-percent stake that troubledinvestor Vatas Holding was selling.
Blavatnik, who lives in the United States, ranks 40th onForbes’s list of richest Americans and has built a businessempire that stretches from America to Russia.
But sources familiar with the matter told Reuters the AirBerlin stake was in the hands of German regional bank Nord LB[NDLG.UL], which insisted that it should receive the payment forthe shareholding, worth about 90 million euros ($141 million).
NordLB put a lien on the stake in an attempt to recouplosses from uncompleted share trades with Vatas, several sourcesfamiliar with the situation told Reuters on Friday.
Hunold said Air Berlin’s outlook for 2008 operating profit,which it slashed on Monday to a range of 73 to 120 million euros($115-$188 million), was not a formal forecast.
“We described a target corridor where the result, with allits volatility, could land,” he said.
