Russian antitrust likely to agree to Aeroflot’s purchase of Transaero

MOSCOW, Sep 2 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service is likely to approve a purchase by national flag carrier Aeroflot of 75% plus one share in Transaero, the country’s second biggest airline by traffic, Director Igor Artemyev told reporters on Wednesday.

“I do not think that we will reject this, as rejection would mean a full-scale bacchanalia not only on this market, but in general in the whole transportation sector and even in the Russian economy. We should approach the deal not as a regular deal, but as a very serious one, the deal than needs structural analysis,” he said.

The service will set some behavioral and structural request to Aeroflot.

“We must grant our approval from the point of view of market monopolization and rulings and decisions that we are to make because about 50% of the market will end up in Aeroflot’s hands. It is no tragedy, we will set some structural requests, ask the company to sell some routes where it gains additional monopoly position as a result of the merger with Transaero,” he said.

Bankruptcy could have been good in this situation, as not only creditors would have been satisfied, but also routes and equipment would have been bought by different airlines.

“But the situation has gone too far and it is impossible to imagine that we have two to three years on the bankruptcy procedure. I do not think that Aeroflot’s management is jumping with joy right now, as they have a very serious bailout work in front of them,” Artemyev said.

Previously, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov ruled to prepare all orders necessary for Aeroflot’s board of directors to start discussing the deal.

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