Swissair sells stake in airport restaurant

Swissair continues to refocus on core activities in its effort to raise money Keystone

The Swissair Group has sold its 50 per cent shareholding in the airport restaurant operator, Flughafen Restaurant, to the Italian-based Autogrill group.

The move comes as part of Swissair’s drive to shed assets and shore up it wafer-thin liquidity base.

“The holding has been sold as part of a broader refocus of the Swissair Group’s overall strategic thrust onto its core airline operations and closely associated activities,” the company said in a statement.

Autogrill said it had paid SFr16 million ($9.5 million) to take full ownership of the business, which had sales of SFr74 million last year and operates restaurants and bars at the Zurich and Geneva airports.

Swissair, trying to disentangle itself from past commitments so that it can move on with a restructuring, is in the process of unloading billions of francs worth of assets that it considers non-core to reduce a SFr15 billion debt load.

swissinfo with agencies