Ogden Corporation has signed a definitive agreement with Consolidated Lamda Holdings, S.A., an affiliate of the Latsis Group of Greece, to sell its FBO business for approximately $27 million.

The transaction includes the FBO assets of Ogden Corporation's Transair unit based at Le Bourget Airport in Paris and its Flight Services Group in Connecticut.

PrivatAir Holding, another Latsis Group affiliate, which will hold these assets post-acquisition, also holds PrivatAir SA, the vip charter operation based in Geneva, Switzerland. PrivatAir has operated a fleet of Boeing 737 and 757 aircraft for more than 20 years in the vip transport arena and is currently the only commercial operator of the new generation of Boeing Business Jets.

"We are very excited by the acquisition of these assets which will afford PrivatAir the opportunity to diversify the high quality product line it offers to the discerning clientele of the business aviation market," said Greg Thomas, a PrivatAir spokesman.

The FBO unit of Ogden Aviation provides aircraft management, air charter, aircraft sales and air charter brokerage, as well as the customary fuelling, hangarage and full ground handling capability.

Said Scott Mackin, president and ceo of Ogden Corporation: "We continue to make steady progress toward our goal of transforming Ogden into a pure-play energy company and completing the non-core asset sales process.

"We have completed the disposition of the majority of the assets in both the aviation and entertainment businesses, and we continue to make progress on selling the remaining non-core assets. Those remaining assets include the aviation fuelling business, our aviation privatisation asset in Colombia, and the balance of the entertainment assets."Ogden will use approximately $2.2 million of the proceeds of the transaction to pay off the unit's associated debt.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year and is subject to customary regulatory approval.