SWEDEN. Scandinavian flag-carrier airline SAS may sell its tax and duty free shopping division, SAS Trading, amid a divestment of non-core operations, it emerged yesterday.
The news came as SAS announced a mounting pre-tax loss in the first quarter and declined to provide an outlook for the full year. The company said it is looking at a divestment programme, including the sale of its head office north of Stockholm and offices in Denmark and Norway.
Other non-core operations, such as its hotel operations and airline-related business, including tax-free shops, may also be divested, it said. However, SAS chief financial officer Gunilla Berg added: “There are currently no talks” with potential buyers of any non-core operations.
SAS reported a pre-tax loss of SEK 1.88 billion (US$239 million) compared with a loss of SEK 1.45 billion (US$182 million) in the same period the previous year. It was wider than analysts’ expectations of a SEK 1.47 billion loss and dubbed “totally unacceptable” by SAS chief executive Joergen Lindegaard at an analysts’ meeting after the report.
SAS Trading operates Euro Shops and full-scale duty free shops in Norway, Russia, Latvia (Riga airport) and Poland (Warsaw airport).
