BL Premium reports that according to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, he has been “absolutely categorical” in talks with prospective airline partners that the government would not put any further capital into SA Airways (SAA) other than what has been promised in the business rescue plan.  

Gordhan and SAA’s business rescue practitioners (BRPs) briefed parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday.  Gordhan has engaged RMB as transaction adviser in the search for a new equity partner for SAA and told MPs that several expressions of interest had been received.  But, it was clear that prospective partners would not contemplate taking on SAA’s old liabilities and obligations, which Gordhan has persuaded the cabinet and the Treasury to cover with a R10.5bn budget allocation in the medium-term budget policy statement.  Since the announcement, the government has taken a public bashing from all quarters except for the ANC’s allies on the decision to divert money from other programmes to SAA.  Apart from the ability to secure an acceptable partner, two big unknowns were left unaddressed by the briefing.  The first were the assumptions and projections of trading losses that the new airline could be anticipated to make in its first years of operation.  A second unanswered question related to the recapitalisation of SAA’s subsidiaries — SAA Technical (SAAT), Mango and Air Chefs — all of which the approved business plan indicated needed funding. Gordhan said he was in talks with interested parties both for the entire SAA group, the airline alone and the subsidiaries.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Carol Paton at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

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