Ilyushin Finance & Co. leasing company (IFC, 48,4% of its shares is owned by United Aircraft Corporation) is negotiating to purchase a 74% share in Red Wings, RIA Novosti reports with reference to IFC CEO Alexander Rubtsov and a source close to the deal.
“Assessment of the company’s business has already been completed, now the deal is awaiting approval. This matter will be considered by the IFC’s Board of Directors in July 2015,” the source close to the deal said.
“Red Wings must prepare an offering memorandum and submit it to us, and the Board of Directors will consider it. IFC and all the creditors must approve the deal. To approve or not to approve – this is another matter, but so far we have such intentions, but we need to see the offering memorandum first,” Rubtsov said.
The source noted that the proprietary rights would be transferred via conversion of the carrier’s debt owed to IFC into capital through follow-on offering. The follow-on offering amount and debt of the carrier were not unveiled; the sources said, “the debt increased recently”. Red Wings CEO Evgeni Klyucharev declined to comment on the matter.
In June 2015 Rubtsov told journalists that Red Wings is going to help the lessor in selling Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft to foreign countries. The carrier was going to help by signing wet lease agreements with foreign carriers, which will be testing the airliners and make decisions on purchasing SSJ100 jets.
Red Wings is one of the largest operators of Russian-produced aircraft. The company is fully owned by organizations affiliated with businessman Sergey Kuznetsov. By late 2016 the carrier will operate 10 SSJ100 liners, five of them will be delivered by IFC. Today the carrier’s fleet comprises 8 Tu-204 and 3 SSJ100 aircraft (the fourth jet of the type will be delivered to the carrier on July 31st 2015; the fifth one – in late October 2015). The carrier’s passenger traffic for the first five months of 2015 was 248,43 thousand passengers (19th place among Russian carriers in terms of passenger traffic).