Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is for sale. One of the interested parties is Viktor Charitonin. However, against the background of the war in Ukraine, the entry of the Russian businessman is viewed critically. Now the billionaire is considering a minority stake in the airport.
In the sales gamble for the insolvent Hahn Airport, NR Holding AG, led by the Russian majority shareholder Viktor Charitonin, is examining a stake of just under 25 percent. “This means that NR Holding AG’s share would be below the blocking minority and it would have no veto right or influence on the operational management,” said the company that owns the Nürburgring.
The pharmaceutical company Charitonin is only interested in a financial and not a strategic commitment at the airport in the Hunsrück. “The remaining 75 percent of the shares in the buyer company are to be held by investors in Germany – exactly which ones are still to be clarified,” it said.
Kharitonin’s project generated a tremendous echo during Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The Hessian Finance Minister Michael Boddenberg from the CDU said: “At the moment you shouldn’t and can’t do business with Russian oligarchs.” The state of Hesse still holds 17.5 percent of the airport in Rhineland-Palatinate.
A Hahn creditors’ meeting recently did not give the green light for a sale to NR Holding AG. But she emphasizes: “Viktor Charitonin is not an oligarch. He has no influence on Russian politics.” The representation that the businessman is close to the Kremlin is wrong.
“Of course he has contacts with Russian authorities, ministries and the Kremlin. Contacts from the executive boards of leading German companies to the federal government are nothing unusual here either. He is an independent and internationally active pharmaceutical company with numerous companies and many thousands of employees for whom he is responsible wears,” it said. The reservations against Charitonin in Germany are discriminatory. He is not on any sanctions list anywhere in the world.
