THE Austrian government has hired Merrill Lynch & Co to help find a buyer for Austrian Airlines Group as record oil prices wipe out profit at the country's biggest carrier, insiders said.
The OIAG state-assets agency picked the US bank to explore a possible purchase of Vienna-based Austrian by airlines, including Air France-KLM Group and Deutsche Lufthansa AG, according to the insiders.
The government, which holds a 43-percent stake in Austrian Airlines, said on June 10 that it was seeking an investor after the sale of a 20-percent stake to Saudi hotelier Mohamed bin Issa al Jaber collapsed in May because the company had a wider-than-expected net loss of 60 million euros (US$95 million) for the first quarter.
"Finding a partner airline is vital in the current economic situation and with high oil prices," Paul Wessely, an analyst at UniCredit, told Bloomberg News.