A German investment fund is close to purchasing a stake in Montenegro Airlines, Prime Minister Duško Marković has said. Without elaborating further, the PM noted that he held talks with the potential buyers earlier this month. The fund is widely tipped to be 4K Invest, which also owns Slovenia's Adria Airways. The Montenegrin government is moving quickly with plans to sell a majority share in the loss making national carrier ahead of the planned concession of its two commercial airports. It has set a tentative deadline for May 2019 to finalise Montenegro Airlines' privatisation process. The Montenegrin Minister for Transportation and Maritime Affairs, Osman Nurković, described the German fund as a "major company", which also "owns a carrier".

Asked earlier this year whether Adria sees opportunities in cooperating more closely with other airlines from the former Yugoslavia, the Slovenian carrier said, "We strongly believe in synergies among partners and thus we continuously seek for opportunities. We are always open for closer cooperation, new markets, greater efficiency and faster growth – without jeopardising sustainability. The success of such cooperation depends on more complex factors, so our decisions and future directions are and will be cautious". Last week, Adria Airways' CEO, Holger Kowarsch, said, "There will be a similar trend in Europe as to what is happening in the United States. Large carriers are focusing only on medium and long haul flights and they do not have a regional fleet. In recent years, consolidation is taking place among regional carriers. Not only have they merged but large carriers have given them the opportunity to carry out regional flights on their behalf. We will also see something similar happening here".

4K acquired Adria via its subsidiary AA International Aviation Holding in March 2016 through a recapitalise-and-sell procedure for 100.000 euros and an additional one million euro capital injection. It later purchased the remaining shares. As part of the deal, the Slovenian government provided 3.1 million euros in capital. 4K Invest says it is a leading European restructuring fund registered in Luxembourg and managed out of Munich. All of it ́s subsidiaries, including AA International Holding as Adria's parent company, are completely owned by European investors, mostly German nationals. Despite expectations that 4K is close to purchasing a stake in Montenegro Airlines, there are other plausible buyers as well, including Germany's Intro Aviation, a consultancy firm which has turned around several loss making carriers.