Finnair Plc has signed a preliminary agreement on a corporate transaction with Finncomm Oy
09-Sep-2010 Finnair Plc (Finnair) and Finncomm Oy (Finncomm) have, on 8 September 2010, signed a preliminary agreement firstly on the purchase of a 20 percent minority interest in Finnish Commuter Airlines Oy (FCA), which practises Finncomm's air traffic operations, and secondly on the acquisition of the entire share stock of the companies that own the Finncomm Group's 12 ATR aircraft.
It is the parties' intention to find, in addition to Finnair, external investors in FCA. Depending on the outcome of the investor negotiations, Finnair's ownership may rise from the 20 percent indicated in the first-stage transaction.
The purchase price for the aircraft companies is a preliminary EUR 38 million (including debt). The purchase price of 20 percent of FCA is a preliminary EUR 10 million (including debt), which also takes into account the possibility of increasing ownership in FCA at a later date.
Negotiations between the parties on the detailed conditions of the transaction are under way. In addition to negotiations on the actual share purchase and shareholder agreements, the realisation of the transaction will depend on the fulfilment of a number of conditions, such as the result of a due diligence, the approval of Finnair's Board of Directors and Finncomm's shareholders, financing and security arrangements, and possibly on required official permits.
The realisation of the transaction is therefore not yet certain.
Finnair assumes that the possible transaction will be finalised and completed during the final quarter of this year.
Finnish Commuter Airlines (FCA) is an airline mainly practising domestic traffic, with which Finnair has cooperated in feeder traffic for over ten years. Finnair's objective through the transaction is to safeguard cost-competitive domestic feeder traffic to its international route network.
In 2009 the Finncomm Group business operations' declared turnover was EUR 86.7 million (EUR 95.5 million in 2008) and the operating margin EUR 8.7 million (EUR 16.4 million in 2008). Finncomm and subsidiaries involved in Finncomm's business operations have around 325 employees.
In the arrangement, Finnair Plc's financial advisor is Aventum Partners Ltd and its legal advisor Roschier, Attorneys Ltd.