Vienna Airport looking to sell shares in foreign businesses

The Austrian owners of the Malta International Airport are reportedly looking to sell their shares in foreign businesses within the long term, according to the Austrian Press Agency.

Flughafen Wien, which operates Vienna International Airport, is expected to sell its 25% stake in Germany's Airport Friedrichshagen within the next six months, according to a statement of management board member Julian Jaeger for Der Standard.

They are the majority owners in MIA, and appoint both the chief executive for the airport.

"The options for Malta and Kosice were also being investigated, but at the moment Vienna Airport's hands were tied contractually," Jaeger was quoted by Standard as saying. Only Malta was yielding a profit, but the company has contracts there binding it to 2017.

"The foreign shareholdings were generating losses for Flughafen Wien, Jaeger noted in the interview, which is why the supervisory board decided to cease foreign investments. This decision was supported by the fact that chances for acquiring stakes of foreign companies during privatisations were small, while tender participations costs were high."

Back in August, another of the owners in the MIA consortium - SNC Lavalin - hinted it could sell off its stake "in the near term".

Chief financial officer Alain-Pierre Raynaud was quoted saying that both the MIA shareholding as well as stakes in power plants in Astoria, New York, were possible assets up for sale.

The Canadian engineers own 36.13% of the private, 40% shareholding of MIA that is owned by the Malta Mediterranean Link consortium: the other partners are Vienna International Airport with 53.24%, and the Bianchi Group, with 10.63%.

The company made a surprise disclosure of a possible US$45.6 million loss from a client's attempt to draw on a credit line for the Libya work that it abandoned during the uprising against dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Libyan projects at the time of Gaddafi's removal from power included an airport, a prison and a water line network known as the Great Man-Made River.