The all-important supervisory board meeting of the Kärntner Beteiligungsverwaltung (KBV) ended a few minutes ago with an earthquake. According to verified reports, the national company voted to buy back the airport from real estate investor Franz Peter Orasch and his Lilihill Group. That would end the 2018 decision to hand over the airport to the real estate mogul. According to tradition, the SPÖ-related supervisory boards moved out when the decision was made. Allegedly also the FPÖ-affiliated supervisory board Wilfried Haselmayer. According to initial information, a unanimous result was achieved without these supervisory boards.
“Last Call” statt Call Option
Now the decision is moving to the body of the Carinthian state government. The SPÖ has the majority there. In the final instance, the SPÖ and Governor Peter Kaiser decide whether Orasch will actually take the airport away once more. The Social Democrats have the majority in the government. In the KBV supervisory board, the SPÖ allegedly would have liked to have had a “last call” for further negotiations with Orasch instead of using the call option, as was learned from reliable sources. According to informants, however, the decision to take the airport back was valid due to the departure of the Red and Blue Supervisory Boards.
Kaiser spokesman Schäfermeier attacks investors, but also supervisory boards
ÖVP regional councilor Martin Gruber described the decision late on Monday evening as being in the “meaning of the Carinthians”. In a first reaction, Kaiser press spokesman Andreas Schäfermeier attacked the KBV supervisory boards, which decided to bring the airport back. In an almost familiar manner: “If such a large number of supervisory board members refuse to exercise the call option because there are so many unresolved legal issues, legal impact assessments and no information on how the airport should proceed following the call option has been exercised, then it shows with sobering clarity how much the majority owners and those responsible for KBV have ‘buried in’.”