The parties behind the resurrection of Aeropostal are caught up in a legal dispute over money and control of the Venezuelan carrier.
On first appearances, the carrier has made a miraculous comeback after going bankrupt in October 1994. Aeropostal's president Nelson Ramiz says the airline was due to return to profit in June after restarting operations in December 1996. Aeropostal operates seven DC-9s domestically and to the Caribbean and Manaus in Brazil, and a further two are being overhauled.
Yet a legal battle between the airline's shareholders threatens to shatter the ideal. Ramiz accuses his partners of defamation and of attempting to take over the company via 'judiciary terrorism'.
Aviation broker Ramiz is facing criminal fraud charges in New York and Caracas, initiated by his investment partners - Ben Yosef, chairman of US aircraft leasing company Aeron Aviation Resources, David Massie, executive chairman of UK finance and investment company IAF, and Israeli banker Zadik Bino.
The investment partners accuse Ramiz of failing to repay their loan of US$20 million, which Ramiz used as the nominal Venezuelan purchaser to successfully win the bid for Aeropostal's assets at the auction in August 1996. The assets include the nine DC-9s, the name of the airline and domestic route authorities.
The investment partners allege that Ramiz failed to transfer the airline's assets to a special-purpose offshore holding company, as agreed, and instead used the assets and their US$1 million security deposit to capitalise a new operating subsidiary, Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela. 'What I do with the money is my business,' retorts Ramiz, pointing out that he has management control, with a 53 per cent stake of Aeropostal's holding company, Corporacion Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela.
The dispute escalated when the investment partners at one point wanted to liquidate the airline's assets, claims Ramiz. He resisted this move because he says he had made a commitment to the Venezuelan government to operate the airline after buying the assets at a third of the original price.
But Massie claims the intention was always to transfer the assets to an offshore holding company, which is 95 per cent owned by the three investment partners, and then consider leasing the necessary equipment to the Venezuelan airline 'if it made business sense'. Massie says the deal was always an asset purchase with no obligation to establish an airline in Venezuela, but adds that the partners remain 'fully open to operating the airline, dependent on being presented a proper business plan'.
At presstime, the investment partners were waiting for Ramiz to file his defence in the New York courts, for a ruling on fraud charges in the Caracas criminal courts, and for an independent financial assessment of Aeropostal.
Source: Airline Business
