The CEO of airBaltic (BT, Riga) has told a London newspaper that he is considering a secondary listing in the United Kingdom alongside a primary listing on the Nasdaq Riga exchange. The state-owned carrier is looking to raise around EUR300 million euros (USD334 million) from the IPO, which is slated to occur later this year or early next.
"We are discussing a dual-listing," Martin Grauss told the business-focused City A.M. "What is the number one place in Europe? If you talk about an IPO, you cannot not consider London.” He added that Amsterdam and Frankfurt are also options.
The chief executive spoke to several news outlets while in London this week and said pre-IPO investor conversations are progressing positively. Gauss told Reuters that the Latvian flag carrier was talking to one strategic pre-IPO investor, although he declined to confirm whether or not that investor was Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International). It was reported earlier this month that the German airline was considering taking a pre-IPO stake in airBaltic. The airline declined to comment to ch-aviation on its latest IPO plans.
Speaking to ch-aviation in June, Gauss said the Latvian government wanted to strengthen the local capital markets, and airBaltic is the flagship state-owned entity and number-one company to go to the stock market. "It is not just about airBaltic raising capital," he said. "It is also about the Latvian state strengthening the capital markets in a very structured approach."
ch-aviation PRO airlines data shows the airline operates scheduled flights to 91 airports in 42 countries with forty-eight A220-300s plus two wet-leased A319-100s and four wet-leased A320-200s.
