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The airline is set to be recapitalised by a new anchor investor. 00:01
The public offering will reopen once the airline resumes operations. Image: Tod Burns
Fly SAX, a worker owned entity, has suspended its bid to raise seed funding to buy cash-strapped regional airline SA Express through crowdfunding platform Uprise.Africa.
The seed funding will instead be raised by an anchor investor who will recapitalise SA Express and take full ownership of the airline to get it off the ground, according to the groupâs spokesperson Thabsile Sikakane.
âCrowdfunding is not completely off the table. Itâs just that for now in order to recapitalise the business, we needed immediate cash which the [new] anchor investor is more than willing to put up,â says Sikakane.
The airline has been under provisional liquidation since April 2020. 15:40
The purchase price for the airline is R50m and it needs R250m in start-up capital. Image: Tod Burns
State-owned regional airline SA Express’s provisional liquidation has been extended to April 29, 2021. The announcement comes eight months after the airline was placed under provisional liquidation when its business rescue process failed.
In a bid to save the airline from being placed under final liquidation, a worker-owned entity called Fly Sax was chosen as the preferred bidder for the purchase of the airline in October last year.
In a circular to the airlineâs creditors on Monday, provisional liquidator Aviwe Ndyamara said the sale agreement with the bidders has not yet been concluded, adding that a number of the airlineâs licences have expired due to the ceasing of operations.