Shareholder and lender of Air Kazakhstan hopes to evade company bankruptcy

/IRBIS, Feb 13, 02/ - REUTERS informs, with the reference to one of the heads of Kazkommertsbank, that the major lender and owner of 50% stake in Air Kazakhstan, Kazkommertsbank, hopes to make an arrangement with the government of Kazakhstan on supporting the leading Kazakhstani air company. The managing director of the bank, Aidar Akhmetov believes that the government will keep the company, though it planned to force the Air Kazakhstan to go bankrupt and the bank, in turn, is willing to restructure $30m debt of the company to the bank and even invest into the company's development. He mentioned that the bank was conducting talks with the government and believes that one of the solutions will be debt restructuring for ten years or so. He also gave examples of other CIS countries, where the carrier, its base airport and navigation services are united, however, the situation in Kazakhstan seems to be different, where Air Kazakhstan owes about KZT1bn (about $6.5m) to Kazaeronavigatsya and about $10m to Almaty airport. Managing director of the bank said that the government would take complete control over the company in order to take the company out of the crisis. The control is said to have been lost in 2000 the government gave 50% stake in the company to the Kazkommertsbank in account of $20m debt repayment and promised to give the state block of shares, though it did not. It is said that the company with $64m of assets as of September 1, 2001 is not profitable. This year there were 3 incidents with the planes of Air Kazakhstan that forced them to make emergency landing on international routes. Those were both TU-154 and Boeing-737. He believes that coordinated plan of the government and the bank will solve the company's problems within a half year period, and $70-100m of required investments for the further development of the company will be borne by the bank. The success will depend on the will of the government, he added. It is said that government aid can be in the form of subsidies, its agreement on joining navigation services and the airport and giving a leading carrier status to Air Kazakhstan, and establishment of the state leasing company. Mr. Akhmetov expressed his agreement with the statement of the Ministry of Transportation and Communication on lower costs of fleet renewal for the company after the incidents of September 11 in USA.