JEDDAH — Kuwait's Jazeera Airways is interested in investing in soon-to-be-privatized, loss-making airline Kuwait Airways, the ArabianBusiness.com said Thursday, quoting the Jazeera Airways chairman. “Yes I would definitely focus on investing more on aviation in Kuwait, subject to a clean clear balance sheet,” it quoted Marwan Boodai, chairman of Jazeera Airways, as saying in an interview. “Like any investment you have to look at what the balance sheet is like and then you have to decide if yes it is worth investment,” he said. “If you look at Kuwait Airways' balance sheet for the last five years when they decided to privatize it, the Kuwait Investment Authority, along with Citibank, they didn't do the brightest job, they should have sold it years ago. “Since then, to date, the accumulated losses, which the government has cashed, reached KWD468m ($1.663bn), which is published officially in our gazette,” he added. This week, Jazeera Airways Group reported net profit for 4Q2012 soared 93 percent, compared to the same period in 2011. Government-owned Kuwait Airways has this year been plagued by strike by workers looking for better wages and conditions. Kuwait-based analyst Rick Bhandari estimated that Kuwait Airways had accumulated losses of over $2.5bn and he believed it was “being run as a government ministry rather than a commercially viable operation.” – SG
