Libra takes 78 per cent stake in UK charter firm

LIBRA Holidays said yesterday it has signed an agreement to take a 78 per cent stake in British-run Sabre Airways in a deal worth nine million pounds sterling.

Sabre, a charter carrier, operates from Gatwick Airport and is scheduled to carry more than 400,000 passengers this year, Libra said in a news release.

The airline carries out charter routes to Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.

Libra said the deal was signed between Sabre Airways and Libra Aviation, the newly created airline division of Libra Holidays Group.

Under the terms of the deal, Libra will purchase a 33.3 per cent equity stake in Sabre by March 31 2000, with the option to buy between 33.3 and 45 per cent further
by October 31.

The agreement is subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Cyprus and the British Civil Aviation Authority, Libra said.

Sabre’s net asset value is £7.1 million sterling, excluding the value of flight slots to and from Gatwick Airport.

The agreement gives minimum guaranteed profits of £1.8 million sterling for this year on a turnover of £49 million sterling, said Libra.

Sabre has a fleet of two Boeing B737-800 and two Boeing B727-200.

Libra Aviation, which recently recruited Cyprus Airways chief executive Demetris Pantazis to head the firm, has applied to authorities for a charter licence. The airline is expected to be fully operational from April 2001.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.