Comair gets cash offer, needs a week to secure funding, say administrators

Administrators in charge of South African airline Comair said on Tuesday they have received a cash offer for the carrier from a company and they would require a week to secure the funding.

The administrators, who had been expected to present a restructuring plan for the airline on Tuesday, asked creditors for another week – until June 30 – to finalise the offer before presenting the plan.

Comair had to file for business rescue, a form of bankruptcy protection, in May after a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus forced the airlines to suspend all commercial flights. It said last month that it was unable to meet its debt obligations as it was not generating any cash.

The administrators said in a statement that they have “received a non-binding expression of interest for cash funding in the form of debt, equity and post-commencement funding.”

“The practitioners (administrators) require that this interested group make a binding offer, that can be set out with reasonably sufficient detail in the business rescue plan,” the statement added.

Comair, which operates the local British Airways franchise and budget airline kulula.com, has a debt of 3.4 billion rand ($197 million) and a fleet of 27 aircraft, of which 16 are owned, according to its annual report published last year.