Norway’s low-fare airline Norwegian Air has been soaring on the Oslo Stock Exchange this week after former suitor Finnair sold off its stake. Its shares were up another 4.13 percent on Tuesday after a 5.5 percent jump on Monday.
Finnair had been one of Norwegian’s largest shareholders after it bought into the low-fare carrier when the two planned to cooperate on routes to Finland and beyond, especially to Asia. Norwegian’s entrepreneurial chief executive Bjørn Kjos later changed his mind, opting for Norwegian to invest in long-haul routes itself and competing against Finnair within Europe.
Kjos and his colleagues never offered Finnair a seat on Norwegian’s board, either, so with Norwegian’s stock already climbing on good results, Finnair decided the time was right to pull out and confirmed a sale at NOK 247 per share. Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported that Finnair stood to get around NOK 400 million (USD 70 million) on the sale, quoting one Finnair executive as saying the stock in Norwegian had been “a good investment for us.”
Norwegian’s shares were selling for NOK 266 on Monday and NOK 277 on Tuesday, after US authorities finally approved new batteries for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that Norwegian intends to use on its new routes to Bangkok and New York. Some analysts think Norwegian’s shares can rise to as high as NOK 350 per share.
newsinenglish.no staff
