SAA creditors vote in favour of deadline extension for outstanding condition

An overwhelming majority of South African Airways’ (SAA’s) creditors have voted in favour of extending the deadline for an outstanding condition to be met before the airline’s rescue plan can come into operation and be fully implemented. 

In a creditor’s meeting hosted by SAA business rescue practitioner Siviwe Dongwana on Friday, 95% of creditors voted in favour of an extension to the fulfilment of condition deadline, which is now July 27. 

The meeting came after creditors, who are owed R16.4 billion for loans extended to SAA before and after business rescue commenced, were unhappy with a guarantee confirmation letter confirming that their claims will remain valid until they are paid back in full. 

The government had already appropriated money to pay the R16.4 billion for the government-guaranteed debt and interest but final details on the letter were not finalised in the engagements between the lenders and National Treasury by the stipulated July 22 deadline. 

No one to blame

“We have all never been here – [this] SOE being the first state-owned entity to have gone into rescue. There are a number of issues that we have all found out as we proceed with this process,” Dongwana told creditors. 

Without giving any details the BRPs said that government, the BRPs and the lenders are locked in a meeting where they are discussing one outstanding issue, that will be finalised “in the next few hours”. 

Read: SAA rescue not yet out of the woods as BRPs schedule creditors’ meeting

The BRPs stressed that no single party is at fault for this delay, but rather the legal framework that is being put together is a novel one and “required a little bit of an adjustment in the way of thinking and doing things”.

Should the outstanding condition not be met by July 27 another meeting will be convened on July 30, where creditors will again consider amending the plan.