South African carrier Comair’s rescue practitioners have disclosed that a potential deal with an interested consortium has fallen through, but are pushing back publication of a business plan to provide time to consider other approaches.
Publication of the business plan had been due on 28 July after an expression of interest was received from a consortium on 21 June.
But the interest has not translated into a binding offer because, the practitioners state, it ran into approval problems with a funding committee.
“[The offer] therefore could not be taken forward,” they add. “[We] understand, to date, that this has not changed.”
But the practitioners point out that two other consortia have each signed non-binding offers, both of which contain “several material conditions” which must be satisfied before being made binding.
“At this time, the ability for [Comair] and the practitioners to fulfil the conditions in these offers, and the willingness of the company’s financiers to participate with the [consortia], remain unknown,” they add.
Understanding whether the parties will be able to meet the necessary conditions – and whether either offer would be able to resolve the airline’s financial distress – will take time to evaluate.
The practitioners are also negotiating urgent short-term bridge funding in order to support the progress of the offers, as well as meet the company’s expenses.
Creditors are being asked to approve a delay to publication of the business plan until 28 August, by which point the airline will have spent almost four months in the rescue process.
