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On 5th October Director General of Deeptour Imran Nazarov held a press conference concerning merging with with MezhBiznesBank (see also the news from 10/4). At present the bank owns 50% of the company. But the question of who will own the control stock is yet unsolved. According to the operator, this deal will solve a number of questions, first of all, settle the relationship with Turkish hoteliers. ‘Russian companies are in an unfavourable situation on the Turkish market. Local hoteliers trust only operators with Turkish money and Turkish roots, and also Western giants. That’s the reason for complaints from the hotels,’ said Imran Nazarov to the BANKO Information Service reporter. The head of Deeptour also said that ‘strategic partnership with the bank’ will allow the company to compete successfully with foreign players on the market, pay in deposits to the hotels and airways, and set up contracts with hotels that are as serious as contracts with western tour companies. Boris Mareev, deputy head of bank board, said the reason for the bank’s interest to the deal was ‘gaining more clients and widen the presence on the market.’
Meanwhile the experts are doubtful concerning both the deal and the operator’s words, for it is not clear if the partner of Deeptour will retain its interest towards tourism for a long time. Specialists say that as time passes investors that come from other fields of the market are beginning to have questions, they get the desire to interfere into the management processes and raise the profit for the business. ‘Of course, when such financial-industrial group in founded, the business becomes stronger, and the company receives serious financial instruments,’ said Alexander Samsonov, managing partner of PRIMANN company. ‘I would call this a good base presupposition. But the question is how this will all be organized. A partnership like that does not necessarily promise successful work on the market.’
