The regional airport has been in bankruptcy since 2021.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt The nail-biter at the Hahn regional airport in the Hunsrück continues: two sales failed, one buyer went bankrupt, and the fourth and recently concluded sales contract is shaky. The good news: The insolvency administrator Jan Markus Plathner has a plan B. He has also signed a contract with another bidder.
Basically, Plathner now has two notarized purchase contracts. The insolvency administrator announced on Saturday: “In addition, we negotiated a second purchase contract with another investor and also had it notarized in case the conditions set in the first contract did not occur.”
The hedge could turn out to be spot on. So far it is planned to sell the airport to NR Holding for around 20 million euros. NR Holding owns the Nürburgring. Behind the company is the oligarch and Russian pharmaceutical entrepreneur Viktor Charitonin. This is not on the list of sanctions that was drawn up after Russia invaded Ukraine. But it cannot be ruled out that the Federal Ministry of Economics will nevertheless prohibit the transaction.
Should that happen, the second bidder would get the chance, who has been defeated so far because of his lower bid: the Mainz-based Richter group of companies, a real estate company. According to her own statements, she also signed a notarized purchase agreement via a subsidiary. The purchase price has already been transferred to a special account, a so-called escrow account.
For the regional airport there seems to be a solution after years of impasse. The creditors of several airport companies will meet next Tuesday to decide how to proceed. In the end, only one purchase contract will be completed, Plathner said.
Conversations with questionable investors
It would be the end of a stalemate that began in 2016. At that time, Hahn Airport was 82.5 percent owned by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and 17.5 percent by the state of Hesse. The state government of Rhineland-Palatinate wanted to sell its shares, Hessen might want to sell later, but is still a shareholder today.
To be on the safe side, the administrator of Hahn Airport has concluded sales contracts with two bidders.
(Photo: Photo Vogt GmbH/Euroforum)
But a first attempt at selling failed. The state government in Mainz stopped talks with the Chinese company Shanghai Yiqian Trading (SYT) after increasing doubts about the solidity of the buyer arose. The case became an embarrassment for politicians.
In 2017, a buyer was found for the shares of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate: the Chinese logistics giant HNA. However, it went bankrupt in early 2021. Hahn Airport also had to file for bankruptcy in October 2021. The search for an investor began again.
Again things didn’t go according to plan. The Frankfurt Swift Conjoy GmbH, a joint venture between the Frankfurt Swift Group and the British company Conjoy Investment Partners, was awarded the contract, but missed several payment deadlines. The insolvency administrator had to look for alternatives.
He now found it in NR Holding, which had offered parallel to Swift Conjoy. Now it’s time to wait and see whether the Federal Ministry of Economics approves the transaction. Given that Viktor Kharitonin is one of those oligarchs who shy away from publicity, it is difficult to judge how close he is to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.
According to the latest figures, almost 1.3 million passengers flew at Hahn Airport between January and November 2022. It was thus ranked 14th among the largest commercial airports in Germany by the airport association ADV.
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