Sunday Times reports that SA Airways (SAA) has been given a new lease on life, with the government announcing it had finally concluded the sale of a 51% interest in the airline to private consortium Takatso.

The deal comes eight months after government had first announced the group as its preferred strategic equity partner for the airline. The announcement in a cabinet statement that the deal had been concluded between SAA shareholder, the public enterprises department (DPE), and Takatso ends months of uncertainty about the future of the airline, which exited business rescue at the end of April and took to the skies again in September. The statement said the sales and purchase process had “now been concluded and signed” by the DPE and Takatso Consortium, adding that the next step involved “the approval of this transaction by various regulatory bodies”. The statement did not disclose the sales price. In a statement on Wednesday, Takatso said as follows: “Takatso is confident that the relaunched SAA has strong growth prospects domestically, regionally and internationally, and will in due course consider partnerships with other aviation players to achieve its growth strategy.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nick Wilson at Sunday Times

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