The South African Airways (SAA) Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) Siviwe Dongwana and Les Matuson, requested an extension from lenders and creditors to extend the publication of the Business Rescue Plan to 31 March 2020. In terms of Section 150 (5) of the Companies Act, lenders and creditors were requested to agree on an extension by the BRPs’ on 26 February 2020. The emailed letter asked creditors to vote for or against the extension and email their votes by close of business on 27 February 2020. The BRPs confirm that a further extension for publication of the Plan from 28 February to 31 March 2020 has been approved by the requisite majority of creditors holding voting interests in the company.
The practitioners and SAA are in the process of finalisation of the proposed restructuring plan and the steps required to implement the proposed restructuring plan which will be encompassed in the draft Business Rescue Plan. The employees committee, creditors committee and the Department of Public Enterprises will be provided with an opportunity to make representations to the practitioners regarding the draft Business Rescue Plan and to consult the practitioners in respect of such representations. After the practitioners have considered and discussed the aforesaid representations the Business Rescue Plan will be published by the practitioners and will be voted upon by creditors at a meeting convened for this purpose. The meeting of creditors to decide whether to approve the Business Rescue Plan must be convened within 10 days of the date of the publication of the Business Rescue Plan.
“We are still in the process of finalising the steps to implement the proposed restructuring option as well as the anticipated effect the plan will have on stakeholders, including the estimated return to creditors,” the BRPs noted.
“We believe that a further extension of one month will allow for sufficient time for us to finalise the Plan, given the complexity and extent of engagement that is required in a business of this size. We then intend to communicate the Plan to the creditors committee, the employees committee and the shareholder, prior to the formal publication of the Plan”.
