AirBaltic Looks to Raise as Much as €300 Million in Planned IPO

(Bloomberg) -- Latvian flag carrier AirBaltic Corp AS plans to raise as much as €300 million ($332 million) as part of a planned initial public offering later this year.

The new capital “would allow us to reach our business goals by 2030,” including improving the airline’s credit rating to access cheaper debt, as well as operating without additional state financial support, Klavs Vasks, the chairman of AirBaltic’s supervisory board, said at a press conference in Riga on Tuesday.

Latvia plans to retain a 25% stake in the airline, and is currently in talks with a “strategic investor” that may buy a stake in the company ahead of any IPO. The government currently owns 98% of the company. Chief Executive Officer Martin Gauss declined to identify the potential strategic investor.

AirBaltic has been planning an IPO for at least a decade, and decided to proceed with a share sale in March after recording its first annual profit since 2018. As part of its preparation for a share sale, the airline has consolidated four classes of shares.

AirBaltic, which operates an all Airbus SE A220 fleet, is “in a very successful phase of preparing for an IPO,” Gauss said. The region that the airline operates in will grow faster in the future than the rest of Europe, he said.