On Tuesday afternoon the business rescue practitioners (BRPs) for South African private-sector airline group Comair asked its creditors to extend the publication date for the airline’s business rescue plan by a month (until August 28). The creditors have until midday Wednesday to respond.
The extension request has been made for two reasons. One is so that the BRPs can secure short-term bridging funding (post-commencement finance) for Comair. This is “urgently required” (in the words of the BRPs press release) to allow the airline to meet its remaining (“limited”) operational overheads and to allow the business rescue process to continue.
The other reason is to progress with two proposals from potential investors in the group. “Of the two recent investment offers received, one is binding but contains several conditions that need to be satisfied,” reported the BRPs. “The other is non-binding and further negotiation is required to progress it to the point where it could be included in the business rescue plan.”
This would not be the first extension for the business rescue plan publication date. An earlier extension had been granted to give the BRPs time to pursue a previous, non-binding, investment offer. However, it had turned out that that offer could not be proceeded with.
Comair operated two airline brands. One was British Airways in South Africa and the other was the budget airline Kulula.