Following the success of Hungarian airline Wizz Air, Blue Air (a Romanian airline) has taken steps for a listing on the London Stock Exchange.

Ridgecrest, an AIM shell company based in Surrey, has announced plans to engineer a “reverse takeover” of the airline.

The special purpose acquisition vehicle said in a stock exchange filing that it had entered into a non-binding agreement with Romanian investor Cristian Rada to buy his company Airline Invest and its wholly-owned subsidiaries Blue Air Aviation and Blue Air Technic.

Ridgecrest would then become Blue Air Group Plc.

The process “remains subject to certain matters”, including the completion of fundraising to be Blue Air.

The disclosure cautioned: “It should be noted that the proposed transaction is at a preliminary stage, and there can be no guarantee that it will complete nor as to its final terms.”

Blue Air was originally established in 2004, currently operates 15 Boeing 737 series (including the MAX, with more on order), and flies from Heathrow to Bacău, Cluj, Iasi and Bucharest, the Romanian capital; in addition in the UK it  serves Luton. It also connects Romania with the principal airports serving an increasing number of capital and other major cities across Europe as well as having a growing operation in Italy.

Blue Air, which is advised by Barons Capital Partners, was profitable before the Covid pandemic and has very competitive operating economics.

www.flyblueair.com