Prague - The Czech government is to sell flagship airline ČSA directly to a strategic investor, informed the Prime Minister Miroslav Topolánek during a press conference on Wednesday.
The investor is supposed to preserve the company's status of a "national and European carrier".
Consultants from Deloitte Advisory recommended to the Czech government a direct sale in a tender.
The other option that was in question was sale at a stock market but the consultant firm saw this option as less practical.
The Czech state owns 91 per cent of ČSA. The rest belongs to Prague municipality and insurance company Česká pojišťovna that is part of the PPF Group of Petr Kellner.
Not very prosperous years
The value of the ČSA is estimated by experts to be 200 million euro and presently it operates a fleet of 50 midrange planes.
The privatization process is expected to begin this year. The name of the new owner could be known in the first quarter of 2009.
Economic results of the ČSA were been favorable in the past few years.
The company reported a loss of 20 million euro in 2005 and almost 12 million euro in 2006.
Though it profited 4 millions euro last year, it was mainly due to sale of its property - for example, Cargo terminal was sold as well as a number of aircraft that were eventually leased back.
Several investors are already interested in buying ČSA. Russian Aeroflot, French consortium Air France KLM, Odien Group, Penta, J&T, or PPF Investments have come to be mentioned.
