The business rescue practitioners (BRPs) for South African private-sector airline group Comair have asked the group’s creditors to grant them a second extension for the publication of the business rescue plan for the airline. Under the Companies Act, a business rescue plan must be published within 25 business days of the appointment of the BRPs. The business rescue plan publication date has already been postponed, from June 9 to June 23.
“On Sunday evening, 21 June 2020, the Practitioners received a non-binding expression of interest for cash funding in the form of debt, equity and post-commencement funding, from an interested group, which the Practitioners are exploring, and which is subject to a due diligence investigation and further negotiations,” explained the BRPs in an update released on the JSE’s Stock Exchange News Service. “The Practitioners require that this interested group make a binding offer, that can be set out with reasonably sufficient detail in the business rescue plan, and therefore require a further extension of the Publication Date by a week to 30 June 2020.”
The BRPs need a majority of Comair’s creditors to agree to this extension. Should any creditors object to such an extension, they have to submit their objection in writing (by email) by no later than 14h00 on June 23. Any creditors who did not submit any objections to the extension by that time would be assumed, by the BRPs, to have granted their consent to the extension.
Comair operated the British Airways (in South Africa) brand and the Kulula low-cost airline brand. It placed itself in voluntary business rescue on May 5.