Johannesburg – Takatso Aviation and the Department of Public Enterprises have mutually agreed to terminate the South African Airways (SAA) Transaction.
In a statement on Wednesday, Takatso said: “It believes the transaction is no longer in the interests of its stakeholders”.
Takatso said protracted negotiations for a revised transaction structure “introduced unacceptable levels of risk and uncertainty”.
Thulasizwe Simelane, Takatso Aviation Spokesperson, said that aviation sector opportunities Takatso sought to exploit through the transaction were greatly diminished in the two years since the special purpose vehicle signing.
“Both parties continue to believe in the merits and pro-competitive benefits of the proposed
SAA transaction, however, they also believe it is in our respective best interests to move
forward independently,” Simelance said.
Commenting on the matter the department said a decision was made last week that there was no purpose in continuing with further negotiations.
“As a consequence, a mechanism to terminate the Sale of Shares Agreement by mutual consent in terms of clause 10.1.1 of the Agreement was put into effect,” the department said.
The Cabinet was briefed on this matter this morning and took note of the stance taken by DPE that SAA will revert to being 100% owned by the State and that a corporate plan needs to be devised by the board and the management of SAA.
The department said the new corporate plan will embrace more routes and more aircraft.
“In order to support these next steps an aviation strategy advisor will be brought to support the Board and management. The Board needs to be strengthened further,” the department said.
“As a consequence we announced today that the engagement with Takatso has ended and that there will be further steps taken both by this 6th administration and the 7th administration, to stabilize SAA.
“We are confident that SAA will continue to fly and grow in terms of the number of routes and aircraft that it is able to lease.
“Furthermore, a new form of raising finances on the basis of the assets of SAA will be explored with financial institutions.”
