Lithuania lacks info for airBaltic share talks with Latvia - minister

VILNIUS - Latvia's offer for Lithuania to buy shares in the national airline airBaltic is insufficient, as it lacks financial and other information about the company, Transport Minister Eugenijus Sabutis said on Thursday.

"What was written to us wasn't sufficient in terms of content. Lietuvos Oro Uostai (Lithuanian Airports, LTOU) and colleagues at airBaltic in Latvia have now been tasked with presenting our position on how we view this situation, and then we expect to receive more information and to at least take a small step forward," Sabutis told Ziniu Radijas.

"The first thing we need is normal financial and other relevant information about airBaltic," he added.

The minister repeated that he could not disclose the contents of the offer due to confidentiality.

"I received the initial proposal directly from Latvia's transport minister. Since it included a request for confidentiality, I can't share its contents. I know the Estonian side has made the contents public, but whether their version matches ours or not, I can't say," he said.

Latvia's Transport Ministry earlier confirmed to BNS that identical offers to acquire airBaltic shares had been made to both Lithuania and Estonia.

Estonian Infrastructure Minister Kuldar Leis said in early July that Estonia had been offered a stake of up to 10 percent for 14 million euros. He said the same package on the same terms had been offered to Lithuania and Germany's Lufthansa.

LTOU, the state-owned operator of Lithuania's three international airports, told BNS in early July that an initial assessment of the offer was underway.

Latvia currently owns 97.97 percent of airBaltic, with the remaining shares held by Danish financial investor Aircraft Leasing 1.