January 23 (SeeNews) - Air Adriatic, a Slovenian company owned by local businessman Izet Rastoder, has bought the operating license of collapsed flag carrier Adria Airways, local media reported on Thursday.
Air Adriatic acquired the licence at the starting price of 45,000 euro ($49,800) in an auction for the sale of property and property rights belonging to Adria Airways held on January 23, public broadcaster RTV Slovenija reported.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
Two more companies had paid the fee to participate in the auction but none of their representatives tried to outbid Air Adriatic. They were Murska Sobota-based Komforia, which is owned by a Croatian company of the same name, and local firm Dedal Aero, which is affiliated with former Adria Airways pilot Dejan Slodej, RTV Slovenija said.
Bankruptcy proceedings were opened against Adria Airways on October 2 after in late September the troubled air carrier suspended flights over lack of funds to run its daily operations.
Adria Airways is controlled by German-owned fund 4K Invest via its wholly-owned subsidiary AA International Aviation Holding GmbH. It bought the airline in 2016 from Slovenian sovereign holding company SDH, which is coordinating the privatisation process in the country. Since then, the airline has sold all of its planes and leased them back to service its operations.
According to Adria Airway's 2018 financial report, the carrier's fleet comprised 19 airplanes, all of them operated under lease.
($=0.903449 euro)