It turns out off answer by Minister Kaag (Finance) and Minister Harbers (Infrastructure) to parliamentary questions posed by various political parties.
Air France-KLM to issue new shares for 2.3 billion euros announced earlier this week. It wants to strengthen the balance sheet and repay 75 percent of French state aid. The advantage for the company is that it replaces loans with equity and thus reduces interest costs.
Keeping Dutch interests equal
There are currently 642,634,034 shares outstanding. The Dutch government owns 9.3 percent of these shares. To keep influence, it wants to keep that stake the same, which means it will also buy 9.3 percent of the new shares. This will involve almost 220 million euros.
There is no control over what is done with the money. “It is impossible to say which part of the Dutch commitment goes where, so it is not possible to indicate whether (part of) this will flow to the French state,” the cabinet said.
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Past appointments
“It is true that the previous Minister of Finance indicated that Dutch state aid should not benefit Air France or the holding company Air France-KLM”, the cabinet replies to questions from the House of Representatives. The cabinet has clearly agreed that if this is the case, no Dutch money will be transferred to Air France or the holding.”
“However, the Dutch state participates in this upcoming share issue as an existing shareholder and ‘normal’ investor. This participation is therefore not qualified as state aid but as a market operation. It is therefore not possible to make agreements about whether and which part of the stake will be used. by the company.”
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Millions bonus top executive
It may even mean that the cabinet indirectly approves the payment of a bonus from Ben Smith, CEO of Air France-KLM. According to European rules, this bonus can only be paid out if 75 percent of the French state aid has been repaid.
The cabinet also says that it expects the airline to quickly repay the Dutch support. There is still 354 million euros outstanding. “It is expected that KLM will repay this in the short term.” The company has recently repaid 311 million euros.
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