Sheremetyevo airport co-owner drops Russia stake purchase plan

MOSCOW: TPS Avia Holding, which controls Moscow's main airport, has decided not to execute its right to buy a 30.5% stake from Russia, Sheremetyevo airport's chairman told Reuters.

The owner of more than 66% of Sheremetyevo, which was one of the busiest airports in Europe before COVID-19, at one stage planned to buy the stake from the Russian state, and possibly to attract a foreign partner for Russia's busiest airport.

But as the coronavirus crisis has hit passenger traffic, TPS decided against going ahead with the purchase, Alexander Ponomarenko, chairman of the board at Sheremetyevo, said.

"It is nearly impossible to determinate the fair market value of the state's stake amid economic uncertainty due to the pandemic," said Ponomarenko, whose family trust holds 65% of TPS's stake in Sheremetyevo along with the family of his business partner, Alexander Skorobogatko.

Arkady Rotenberg, a former judo training partner of Russian President Vladimir Putin, indirectly controls the rest.

Sheremetyevo saw a sharp drop in traffic as Russia almost halted domestic and overseas flights, re-opening some routes in the second part of 2020.

Passenger traffic dropped to 19.8 million people last year, from nearly 50 million before the pandemic. Ponomarenko did not say what price the state wanted for its 30.5% stake.

Russian state property management agency, Rosimushestvo, did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.

Rotenberg said on Saturday he owns a huge palace in southern Russia which jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny has linked to Putin.

In the same investigation released last month and which has attracted more than 100 million views online, Navalny said that Ponomarenko also has had links to the palace.

Sheremetyevo said last week that Ponomarenko ceased all connections to the property in 2016.