South Africa Airways Sells major stake to Lift..Goverment Drain..

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...c4NTw&usqp=CAU

South Africa agreed to sell a majority stake in the country’s grounded national carrier to a local jet-leasing company and private-equity firm, ridding the government of an entity that has long been a drain on state finances.

A consortium comprised of Johannesburg-based Global Airways, which owns recently launched domestic airline Lift, and private-equity firm Harith General Partners will take a 51% shareholding in South African Airways, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Friday. The government will retain a minority stake. The rand strengthened on the news, trading 0.5% firmer at 13.55 to the U.S. dollar as of 10:11 a.m. in Johannesburg.
The grouping named Takatso will invest as much as 3.5 billion rand ($258 million) over the next three years, Lift co-founder Gidon Novick and Harith Chief Executive Officer Tshepo Mahloele said in an interview.

“Government will have no further financial obligations to the company, outside of the existing liabilities that they will settle,” Novick said. “Route networks we are still working on, and it will be a phased roll-out based on demand re-emerging post Covid.”

The sale of SAA comes about six weeks after the airline emerged from lengthy bankruptcy proceedings, having reduced its workforce by almost 80% and cut liabilities to about 2.6 billion rand. The next challenge is to resume international flights, though South Africa remains cut off from much of the world due to pandemic travel restrictions.