Israir Group halts Smartwings acquisition talks with Chinese shareholder

Israir Group’s efforts to take control of Czech carrier Smartwings have encountered difficulties after the Israeli operator stopped negotiations with the Chinese shareholder. Smartwings is about 49%-owned by China’s CITIC Group. Israir had put down a deposit of €500,000 ($538,000) in favour of CITIC Group as part of the discussions, and says it had an option to purchase the shareholding with a deadline of 14 February. But it states that on 8 February, owing to the “geopolitical situation in the Middle East”, the negotiations were “terminated”. The deposit has been paid back to the company. Israir Group has been pursuing Smartwings – which is majority-owned by two individual investors – for well over a year. The company has yet to clarify whether it is still interested in taking over the Czech airline.<br/>