So far, some six investors extended offers, the sources said.
According to other sources, the court-appointed administrator of insolvent firm Romstrade, which owns Blue Air, wants to complete the transaction in at most two months.
“We haven’t set a price for the company yet, as we have not decided what assets will be sold. We plan to sell the airline business, but Blue Air also owns stakes in other companies, several properties, including an office building in Bucharest,” said Rudolf Vizental, managing partner at Casa de Insolventa Transilvania (CITR), the legal administrator of Romstrade.
Investors interested in Blue Air have until April 20 to file bids and letters of credit worthiness, the airline company said in a statement Thursday.
Blue Air has a new managing board starting Wednesday. Its members are Ellen Phillips (U.S. aviation specialist), Adrian Ionascu (the deputy general manager of the company) and Rudolf Vizental (CITR representative).
Blue Air registered turnover of 575.5 million lei (EUR131 million) in 2011 and losses of RON48.5 million. Its debts amounted to RON393.8 million at the end of 2011, according to Finance Ministry data.
The company’s fleet includes nine Boeing planes.
Blue Air and construction company Romstrade are the largest companies controlled by Iordache, who has been placed under preventive arrest for embezzling RON25 million from EU funds allotted for the construction of the Nadlac-Arad highway.
At the beginning of the year, Blue Air said it cancelled a $462.2 million order it placed in 2008 for five Boeing 737 planes, due to the difficult financial situation Romstrade was facing. The planes should have been delivered in 2015-2016. (EUR1=RON4.3924)