update (29 July 2020): South African Airways' (SAA) business rescue plan has come into operation!
update (28 July 2020): The business rescue practitioners (BRPs) of South African Airways (SAA) announced today that all the conditions in the embattled airline's business rescue plan have been fulfilled. The BRPs are currently finalising remaining outstanding administrative issues before filing a notice of substantial implementation of the rescue process as required by South Africa's Companies Act.
update (24 July 2020): South Africa's Government has until 27 July 2020 to seal the success of the SAA business rescue plan by reassuring the Development Bank of SA and other lenders that it will honour guarantees covering R16,4bn of SAA loans.
update (24 July 2020): According to the business rescue practitioners of South African Airways (SAA), Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana, the Government of South Africa failed to provide the banks with a guarantee letter, which is one of the conditions set for SAA's rescue plan to succeed.
update (16 July 2020): South Africa's Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and National Treasury have provided South African Airways' Business Rescue Practitioners (BPP) Siviwe Dongwana and Les Matuson with a letter of commitment signed by both departments, in which the Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan and Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni commit to obtain funding for the state-owned airline's short, medium and long-term requirements.
The majority of the creditors of South Africa's state-owned flag carrier, South African Airways (SAA), have voted to adopt the proposed business rescue plan for the struggling airline. This gives the 86-year-old national carrier a chance to avoid liquidation and paves the way for South Africa's Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) to launch a new airline. The DPE will announce the interim board of the "new SAA" soon. SAA's current chief commercial officer, Phillip Saunders, will become the interim CEO for the airline. South African Airways (SAA), which last made a profit in 2011, was put under business rescue in December 2019 and suspended commercial passenger flights in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. We'll keep you posted!
update (17 June 2020): The long-awaited business rescue plan for South African Airways was finally published on 16 June 2020.
update (04 June 2020): The South African Airways (SAA) Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs), Siviwe Dongwana and Les Matuson, have issued a draft business rescue plan to affected persons for comment and consultation. They have also received an extension as requested, for its final publication to 08 June 2020.
South African Airways' (SAA) Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) Siviwe Dongwana and Les Matuson have received another extension from lenders and creditors to publish their long-awaited business rescue plan to save South Africa's embattled flag carrier from liquidation. A majority of lenders and creditors agreed to the extension. In the request for a postponement, the Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) pointed out that the uncertainty of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on South African Airways (SAA) and the global aviation industry as well as the need for lengthy redundancy talks with labour unions makes an extension inevitable. The new deadline for the business rescue plan is the 29 May 2020.
South African Airways' (SAA) Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) Siviwe Dongwana and Les Matuson have received an one-month extension from lenders and creditors to publish their plan to save South Africa's embattled flag carrier from liquidation. A majority of lenders and creditors agreed to the extension. The two Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) can now file their Business Rescue Plan on South African Airways (SAA) by the end of March 2020.
"We believe that a further extension of one month will allow for sufficient time for us to finalise the Plan, given the complexity and extent of engagement that is required in a business of this size. We then intend to communicate the Plan to the creditors committee, the employees committee and the shareholder, prior to the formal publication of the Plan". [src.]
South African Airways (SAA) has been placed under business rescue since December 2019, with Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) Siviwe Dongwana and Les Matuson taking over the management of the airline.
