The majority of the funding needed to relaunch South African Airways (SAA) as a majority privately run airline, according to Gidon Novick, who until last Monday served on the board of the consortium looking to buy a 51% stake in SAA, has not yet been committed, Moneyweb reports.
Global Aviation Operations, which would supply the necessary aviation expertise and is represented by Novick, and Harith General Partners, which is in charge of raising the R3 billion needed to relaunch the airline, make up the Takatso Consortium.
Novick left his position as Takatso CEO last week, citing a lack of communication and transparency that made it difficult for him to carry out his fiduciary duties as a consortium director.
R3 billion had not yet been committed at the time of his resignation.
“The deal has always required two factors. We were supposed to provide the necessary skills, and Harith was supposed to provide the necessary funding.
Because it appears as though the capital has not been committed, which was one of the issues I needed to understand more fully as a director, I suppose they are both now in doubt.
Uncertain motive for resignation
Tshepo Mahloele (who is also owner of the Sunday Times group of newspapers), the consortium’s chair and CEO of Harith General Partners, has asserted that the problems with Novick’s resignation are related to a conflict of interest that the group has been handling since February.
In an interview with Moneyweb editor Ryk van Niekerk for RSG Geldsake, Mahloele stated that Novick had asked for confidential information about SAA’s operations that could not be shared with a rival.
Novick is a co-founder of the young airline Lift, which will celebrate its second anniversary on December 10th.
Mahloele added that Lift had spoken to SAA about potential codesharing, interline, and profit-sharing arrangements.
Mahloele was unable to be reached by Moneyweb for additional comment.
In response, Novick claimed that Lift’s management had not asked for any delicate business information pertaining to SAA.
The funding, which is “obviously a very material part of the deal,” is the main focus for Global Aviation.
The straightforward inquiry was, “Has that capital been committed?
“Even if there’s a condition, has that capital been committed, even though I don’t think anyone is expecting it to be in the bank right now?”
In addition, Novick denied allegations made in a Sunday Times report that Global Aviation had asked managerial control of the airline once it had joined SAA and had asked for R1 billion for Lift to combine with SAA.
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Takatso still has a stake in Global Aviation.
