"Macedonian Air Transport": "Jat Airways" is not taking over majority package of stocks

On March 20th, 2009, the people from Macedonian air transportation company "Macedonian Air Transport" (MAT) denied the claims that Serbian "Jat Airways" was going to take over the majority package of stocks of that company because of the debt.

The Acting Director General of “Jat”, Saša Vlaisavljević, claims that it is indisputable that MAT owes more than 10m USD to “Jat”, and that Serbian airliner suggested conversion of part of that debt into stocks.

According to MAT’s statement, it is possible that “Jat” will enter the ownership structure of Macedonian airliner, but it is also added that two foreign air transportation companies and certain investment fund have expressed interest in MAT. It is pointed out that “some of these negotiations are already in the final phase".

The people from MAT said that the only result of the talks with "Jat" was the agreement on strategic cooperation, which anticipated long-term business-technical cooperation in use of airplanes, training of personnel and realization of joint commercial projects that should enable introduction of flights to new destinations.

The cooperation between "Jat" and MAT will also be discussed by the Director General of Serbian airliner, Saša Vlaisavljević, and the President of the Board of Managers of MAT, Zlatko Petrović, at the next week’s joint press conference.

- The next step is forming of the joint team that will make the list of all mutual claims and debts, while the joint legal team will define the models of possible cooperation – said Vlaisavljević.

As the people from "Jat Airways" explained, within the next two weeks, the commission made of experts from these two air transportation companies will make the proposal of the percentage of ownership share of “Jat” in Macedonian airliner based on the debt of 10m USD.

Vlaisavljević also pointed out that "Jat Airways" owned company “Aeromak” in Macedonia, which should play significant role if mutually acceptable agreement was reached with MAT because "Jat" could get maximum 50% minus one stock in MAT.

He pointed out that "Jat" had started negotiations with potential manufacturers about procurement of new fleet.

Air Serbia ad Beograd

Macedonian Air Transport

MAT

Jat Airways

Saša Vlaisavljević

Zlatko Petrović

Aeromak