The Guernsey-based company NR Investments Ltd gave up on the 95 percent of Avia Invest, the Moldovan company that currently manages the Chișinău International Airport. Avia Invest and NR Investments Ltd ratified the purchasing agreement in August 2019. Although the purchase was troubled from the beginning Nat Rothschild was ready to use all the legal means to defend his investments. However, the change of the pro-Western government with a pro-Russian one could’ve pursued him to pull out.

NR Investments Ltd, a company owned by British billionaire Nat Rothschild, declared that it was pulling out of its troubled investment in the main airport in Moldova following months of disputes, BalkanInsight declared.

It did not mention the buyer. But Moldovan media wrote that the likely new owner was Russian oligarch Andrey Goncharenko, CEO of a Gazprom subsidiary and owner of four central London estates.

Goncharenko acquired his fortune in the 1990s in the Russian property, forestry and transport sectors before later becoming president of part of Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy giant.

On August 19, representatives of Avia Invest and NR Investments Ltd ratified a purchase agreement for 95 percent of the Avia Invest company, which runs the Chișinău International Airport.

The purchase was troubled from the start. The former pro-E.U. prime minister, Maia Sandu, announced on August 24 that the prosecutor’s office had seized the assets of Avia Invest as part of a probe into allegedly fraudulent state sell-offs, which is why no one could take over the concession contract. On September 4, the government also repealed several decisions approved in the 2012-2013 period, which had led to the concession of the airport.

Despite these hostile moves, on August 29, the Rothschild family company announced that it had completed the purchase of 95 percent of Avia Invest.

The then economy minister, Vadim Brinzan, on August 30 complained that when prosecutors seized the share capital of Avia Invest, NR Investments Limited had gone “through the back door”, acquiring an offshore company that owned most of Avia’s assets.

In September, NR Investments Ltd announced that it intended to turn Chișinău airport into a “world-class airport”.

But disputes over the purchase continued. On September 12, the Public Property Agency said it was suing Avia Invest, after which Rothschild said that he was ready to “use all the legal means available in Moldova and internationally” to defend his investments.

The fall of the pro-EU prime minister and the installation of a more pro-Moscow Socialist government may have persuaded him to pull out.

On December 23, Moldova’s pro-Russian President, Igor Dodon, restated his strong reservations about the handling of the airport. “We do not know about the new owner,” he said.

“But regardless of whom this right was handed over to, we will cancel the concession contract. Until then, all the assets of the airport are blocked by the investigation bodies,” he added.

Dodon stated before, on September 23 that Russian investors remained interested in Moldova, mentioning Chisinau airport and the port of Giurgiulesti in this context.