Sale of airline Norwegian fell through because of Brexit, chairman says

A sale of airline Norwegian Air Shuttle fell through last year amid Brexit uncertainty, the company has revealed.

Chairman Bjorn Kise said that he and chief executive Bjorn Kjos, who is also a major shareholder, were onboard with a plan to sell the company to an unnamed bidder before Christmas.

Read more: Budget airline Norwegian takes a beating as it turns to shareholders in bid to raise cash

“In November a stakeholder approached us with a bid. The offer was good enough for us to proceed, and it was supported by the board,” Kise told Norwegian news site E24.

However, the bidder keep delaying an announcement amid economic uncertainty.

“There was a lot of market turbulence in December, and no clarity on Brexit,” Kise said.

The company’s shares plummeted by 25 per cent earlier this week after it was forced to go to shareholders to raise cash.

The 3bn Norwegian krone fundraise (£268m) comes after a bid from British Airways owner IAG fell through last week.

IAG had made two preliminary bids for Norwegian, which were rejected as too low.

There will be a vote on the rights issue on 19 February, and around a third of shareholders are already on board, Norwegian said.

Read more: British Airways-owner International Airlines Group rules out new bid for Norwegian Air

Kjos said the rights issue was planned in secret as the stakeholder kept delaying.

“We had to ensure that we had liquidity and capital. We have never been in breach of our credit limits, and never will be,” he told the paper.