A US court has now given SAS the green light to proceed with a capital raising round.
”We will conduct a competitive and broad capital procurement process to secure new capital,” says SAS CEO Anko van der Werff in a comment.
At the beginning of April SAS announced that it taken formal steps to initiate the fundraising round as the company had long planned as part of its rescue plan.
After a setback, following which SAS was required to return to court with a revised rescue plan, the US Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of New York has now approved SAS’s capital-raising process, according to a press release from the airline.
”We will carry out a competitive and wide-ranging capital-raising process to secure new capital that will support the airline’s continued development and facilitate the completion of the Chapter 11 proceedings,” said Anko van der Werff, CEO of SAS, in a statement.
The company states that the deadline for potential investors to submit final bids expires in 13 weeks.
Already in connection When the SAS Forward rescue plan was unveiled, the company announced that its aim was to raise at least 9.5 billion kronor in new capital. In addition, SAS intends to reduce or convert 20 billion kronor in debt.
”The final size of the capital injection depends on the competitive capital-raising process and the Company’s ongoing ability to generate further liquidity,” the press release states.
During the process, SAS has established that the value of existing shareholders’ holdings will be very small or nil once the reorganisation process is complete.
The company aims to conclude the US legal proceedings during the latter part of the second half of this year.
Air travel is recovering following the pandemic, but SAS continues to face significant headwinds. The Court of Justice of the European Union recently annulled a decision by the European Commission regarding state aid granted to SAS during the early stages of the pandemic. However, it remains unclear for the time being whether SAS will be required to repay the aid, totalling 11 billion kronor, or not.
Source: DI.SE
