Transaero shares up 40% in early trading on Moscow Stock Exchange

Transaero shares increased by 40% to 10.95 rubles per share in the early trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange on Tuesday. On October 26 Olga Pleshakova, the former CEO of Transaero, summed the activities of the airline which has been on the market since 1991. "Transaero has served over 86 million passengers, mastered 11 types of aircraft, including three Russian. It managed to establish the operation of Boeing-747, the largest passenger plane in Russia, CIS and Eastern Europe," Pleshakova wrote in her Twitter blog on Monday. "The changes of internal and external financial conditions in 2014 dramatically worsened the situation. In 2015, the entire management of the airline did all it could to ensure that the company could continue to operate. However, in conditions of the bank lock-out the miracle did not happen," she added. According to her, on September 1, the key shareholders of Transaero agreed to sell their shares that were estimated at "several billions rubles on the stock exchange" for just one ruble to the Aeroflot Group as part of the soft consolidation program of the business. "We did our best not to hurt the interests of the people and put together a package of 72% of shares, some of which were held in pawn at a state bank, and missing 3% were expected from another state bank, which voiced this intention at a meeting on 1 September. Moreover, those two state banks initiated the transaction. But the potential buyer did not receive the permission from the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). Unfortunately, no soft consolidation happened after October 1," she wrote. Pleshakova said she hopes that "the new highly professional and experienced owner of Transaero’s controlling stake and the creditors will be able to find a way to restore the airline's operations. Earlier it was reported that Vladislav Filev, co-owner of S7 airline, signed an agreement on acquiring a controlling stake in Transaero from the Pleshakov family. FAS reported that it had not received any petition for the approval of this transaction. Last week, the Federal Air Transport Agency canceled the airline operating certificate from October 26. Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov told TASS that the certificate was revoked "once and for all." At the same time the current owners of the shares - the Filev family - hope to agree with the creditors and to restructure the debt of Transaero, by giving 49% stake in the carrier to the creditors. The main creditors of Transaero are insisting on the bankruptcy of the company. Earlier, Dmitry Saprykin, who was appointed by Aeroflot as Transaero’s general director, said he plans to apply to the arbitration court asking it to declare the bankruptcy of the airline.