Greybull Capital LLP, the UK-based investment firm that acquired a 90% stake in Monarch Airlines (1968) (London Luton) from previous owners, the Swiss-Italian Mantegazza family, in October 2014, is planning to sell off the carrier The Sunday Times newspaper has reported.
The firm has appointed Deutsche Bank to explore the company's growth options in Europe, which could include selling or merging with a distressed airline.
"Monarch has executed a successful turnaround, is now a strong and stable business and is therefore ready to look at growth opportunities in Europe," an airline spokesman said.
At the time of its takeover of Monarch, Greybull set about restructuring the loss-making airline with the intention of repositioning it as a "premium budget-carrier" focussing on regional European and Mediterranean leisure routes while terminating longhaul and charter operations.
However, despite posting a GBP40 million (USD61 million) gross profit for the year ending October 2015, the carrier's traffic has been hit hard by terrorist attacks in the mainstay markets of Egypt and Tunisia while its Cypriot and Turkish operations have been hampered by the Syrian refugee crisis.
Greybull is expected to make a substantial profit on a sale, The Sunday Times added.
