Shortly before the coronavirus crisis hit, the Norwegian state-owned company Vy bought the Swedish Flygbussarna for almost 1.2 billion kronor. As the pandemic brought virtually all air traffic to a halt, the investment has turned into a real nightmare for the Norwegian company.

”"The timing of the purchase is of course unfortunate," the company states. Dagens Næringsliv.

In December last year, Norwegian Vy announced that the company had acquired Flygbussarna, which operates to and from seven Swedish airports.

When the purchase was announced, the parties did not agree on a purchase price, but the first four-month report of the year shows that Vy paid just under SEK 1.2 billion for Flygbussarna.

The inauguration took place on March 1, and just two weeks later, images were being transmitted from almost empty airports. Since then, air traffic in Sweden has basically come to a standstill, and the other day, airport operator Swedavia reported that travel from Swedish airports had decreased by 97 percent compared to the same period last year.

Flygbussarna has thus become a nightmare investment for Vy. At the time of the takeover, Flygbussarna had a cash balance of SEK 24 million, which was not enough in the crisis that was to come.

”"The company's operating income during the period March 1 to April 30 is 20 million Norwegian kronor and the profit after tax during the same period is minus 30 million Norwegian kronor," Vy writes in the report.

Vy also writes that there are reasons to write down the value of Flygbussarna, as the company is estimated to have a negative cash flow during the remainder of the year.

Vy's communications manager Nina Hauge Schage writes to Dagens Næringsliv that "the timing of the purchase of Flygbussarna is of course unfortunate.".

”All commercial bus operations in Norway and Sweden, as well as in the rest of Europe, have suffered significant losses as the customer base disappeared overnight,” she writes.

Vy, formerly known as NSB, is owned by the Norwegian state.

Source: di.se