Mango airline sale: SAA to receive nominal fee as new owners emerge

IOL News

2 days ago

State-owned Mango appears to be a step closer to the skies again, four years after the low-cost airline was grounded in July 2021.
Image: File
The sale of grounded state-owned low-cost airline Mango is being finalised and its current owners, SA Airways (SA), are likely to receive a nominal fee of about R1 000.
Business rescue practitioner Sipho Sono this week said there was no reason why SAA should not sign the sale of shares agreement because the sale was approved even though the matter had to go to court to force the decision.
'That decision has already been taken. We don't know why its taken SAA long to comment on the sale of shares agreement but at least now there is some movement,' he explained.
Sono said SAA appointed lawyers advising the national carrier to review and conclude the agreement.
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'So it looks like we are moving in the right direction. The value that goes to SAA is nominal, they are not getting anything. Their shares will be sold at next to nothing, let's say a R1,000,' he added.
Sono expressed confidence that the rest is more the language of the agreement and nothing of substance will change. Mango's new owners are expected to lease aircraft, according to Sono.
'The investor will be buying the intellectual property, the brand, which is Mango, and the loyal customer base, which previously had a good experience with Mango. The planes and so forth would be leased independently so there are no planes to be sold,' he said.
Sono said Mango has to be sold and it has to be privatised as it may no longer be owned by SAA.
'It will be sold to a private investor whose details we have not officially released. We will only do so once all the relevant agreements have been signed,' he further stated.
Sono said the investor has also reviewed the agreement and once it is signed the investor will be announced but timelines for the restart of Mango have not been finalised.
'We are busy with trying to conclude a transaction that will then allow the investor to finalise its own business plan. The timelines and the dates will be announced in the future,' he said.
At the start of the business rescue process, there were 55,000 unflown customers, which is about R180 million in value.
Sono said some of the customers have been refunded by their banks, where if a passenger bought a ticket with their credit card they are allowed to claim back from the bank within 30 days or so.
In addition, there are a number of customers who may have opted for bank refunds and some of them may have been refunded by Mango's pervious travel partners.
Sono said customers are no different from other creditors but they have been prioritised to receive the full value of their unflown tickets.
'Customers are getting good value, assuming we finalise the transaction and Mango restarts soon enough,' he said.
However, if the sale is not concluded, customers will be treated the same way as other creditors and will be paid a dividend, which is a fraction of what they paid for their tickets.
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