Bucharest nationalises Blue Air, mulls sale to US investor

The Romanian state has taken over Blue Air, confiscating a 75% stake in the dormant carrier - just as media reports revealed one month ago that it would. “We have taken over the shares, the takeover has been completed, and now we are trying to form a new board of directors. The people who are now on the board have not resigned yet, but they will,” said Daniel Geantă, head of the Authority for the Administration of State Assets (Autoritatea pentru Administrarea Activelor Statului - AAAS), told the Romanian-language news site Economica.net. “It’s that delivery-reception period and we have had problems accessing the documents, and there are small delays due to the fact that the documents we requested are not being made available to us,” he added. The state institution is requiring the closure of the airline’s financial statements and employment contracts, as well as a statement of debts and creditors, and soon the AAAS will embark on a full audit of the company. Blue Air accumulated debts of over E230m (US$244m), including a US$65m six-year loan from state-owned export-import bank EximBank in late 2020 to assist it during the pandemic. For that state aid, the shareholders pledged 75% of the shares, according to Economica.net. “We cannot be responsible, as a public institution, for what happened until we can say we have taken over the company,” Geantă said.<br/>