The airline SAS announced on Tuesday the winning consortium in the company’s financial recovery process, within Chapter 11, in the USA.
These are the investment funds Castlelake, Lind Invest and the Air France-KLM group, in addition to the Danish state. The consortium is expected to inject almost 1.2 billion dollars into the carrier and, if approved by US authorities, rescue the company from bankruptcy.
The new corporate structure foresees the division of SAS into 32% of the capital with Castlelake, 25.8% with the Danish government, 19.9% with Air France-KLM, 8.6% with Lind Invest and the remainder ( 13.6%) with other creditors.
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SAS said it intends to receive Chapter 11 plan approval from the Court of Justice in early 2024 and will then seek further endorsements from regulatory agencies in Scandinavian countries.
Until the plan is effective, scheduled for the middle of next year, SAS will operate its flight network normally. However, the airline confirmed that it will switch alliances, leaving Star Alliance, where it was one of the founders in 1997, to join rival Sky Team, from Air France, KLM and Delta, among others.
Within this, there will also be commercial cooperation work to be established with Air France-KLM.
“The agreed investment is a key milestone in our SAS FORWARD plan, and it shows that our new investors believe in SAS and our potential to remain at the forefront of the airline industry for years to come. Further, our move towards a partnership with SkyTeam determines a clear path forward for the company,” said Anko van der Werff, CEO of SAS.
