British regional airline Flybe Group Plc (LON:FLYB) announced today it had increased its shareholding in Finnish Aircraft Maintenance Oy (FAM) to 60% from the previous level of 46.3%.
The UK company said it had bought a 7.4% stake in FAM from existing minority shareholders as well as an additional 6.3% holding from a unit of Finland’s flag carrier Finnair (HEL:FIA1S) for a total sum of EUR358,000 (USD446,200).
Flybe purchased its initial stake in FAM last year as part of its acquisition of private investment vehicle Finncomm in partnership with Finnair.
The current stake buy provides Flybe with gross assets of nearly GBP1.06m (USD1.6m/EUR1.3m), or 13.% of the total amount of GBP7.7m that was reported in FAM’s latest audited accounts at the end of 2010.
Following these transactions, the aircraft maintenance business is majority held by Flybe, while Finnair has a 40% in it, equal to the ownership ratio of their Flybe Nordic joint venture. The JV will now own both FAM and the airline it predominantly services, namely Flybe Finland.
Flybe does not expect the reorganisation of FAM to have a significant impact on its profits for 2013. The British company has an existing maintenance, repair and overhaul business.
