PRESS: VIM-Avia to get 500 mln rbl from Russian government

MOSCOW, Sep 28 (PRIME) -- Troubled airline VIM-Avia will get 500 million rubles from the Russian government as a return of value-added tax (VAT) for July–September, Vedomosti business daily reported on Thursday citing a source close to the company.

The airline has been delaying a large amount of flights since mid-summer, and on Monday it admitted it had no money to continue its activities and would have to stop charter flights. On Tuesday, the airline asked for state guarantees to buy fuel, and a source close to the management of the air carrier said that the company asked for 800–840 million rubles state guarantees.

Vedomosti reported that VIM-Avia had been in negotiations on a 300 million ruble loan with Bank Zenit and a 200 million ruble loan with Absolut Bank since June to cover a 500 million ruble cash gap, but the talks fell through. A VIM-Avia representative confirmed the information.

A representative of Absout Bank said that the bank held no negotiations with VIM-Avia, but managers of the two banks said that the airline had negotiations with Bank Zenit and it turned to many other banks. One of the sources said that VIM-Avia already owes about 3 billion rubles to Bank Zenit.

On Wednesday, the carrier received 55 million rubles of subsidies from the Federal Air Transport Agency for transportation of passengers to the Far East, and on the same day it redeemed 60 million rubles of wage arrears, a source told Vedomosti. The company may receive subsidies for September passenger transportation in late October, but it will be a smaller sum, the person said.

“We have signed a 254 million ruble contract for subsidized transportation of passengers, and already paid 215 million rubles for performed flights,” a representative of the agency told the business daily.

(58.0102 rubles – U.S. $1)

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