Iceland’s FL Group aims for a place in Finnish national air carrier Finnair’s board, a Finnish business paper reported on Saturday. Finnair said on Friday FL Group’s stake in it would rise to 22.4 percent because the group had agreed to buy 10.6 percent stake from Icelandic Straumur-Burdaras .

“A place in the board would be a good lookout position in Finnair, which is an international airline and successful in Asian routes,” FL Group’s Chief Executive Hannes Smarason was quoted as saying in Kauppalehti Presso.

The Finnish state is the largest owner of Finnair with 55.8 percent stake. Smarason would like to see Finland selling its shares in the company.

“I think Finnish state should sell all Finnair shares it owns. Nowadays a state stake of this big is very controversial especially because Finnair is a listed company. Investors interest in the company would grow when state’s stake decreased.”
——-