Swedish Government could sell stake in SAS - report (translated)
The Swedish Government's 17.1% stake in the Scandinavian airline SAS could be on its way to being sold, according to Affarsvarlden.
The Swedish business publication cited an unnamed source who said that a consortium of at least two investors is eyeing the stake but that they need further participants to gain sufficient funding.
The report noted that Nordea is reportedly helping the Swedish state find a new owner for its stake and that the process has been underway for about a month now without a deal being made.
The item noted that the Swedish and Norwegian governments both sold shares in SAS last autumn. The paper's source said that another one of SAS' major shareholders is currently looking to sell its stake and it is seen as likely that the potential vendor is the Norwegian government with 11.4% of the shares in SAS.
The Swedish government has declined to comment on the report. Daniel Ferreira, press secretary for Sweden's minister of Enterprise and Innovation, Mikael Damberg, declined to comment on the report. However, he confirmed that the government does not plan to own SAS shares in the long term but that a sale must occur responsibly.
The paper wrote that the Swedish government's stake in SAS is worth around SEK 1bn (EUR 104m) and the Norwegian government's is worth around SEK 700m (EUR 72.7m).