Comair (South Africa) (CAW, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) has announced that shareholder Thelo Aviation Consortium, has divested its entire stake in Comair Ltd for ZAR159.8 million (USD13.1 million). Owned by Ronnie Ntuli and Khutso Mampeule, Thelo acquired a 15% stake in the South African carrier in 2007 as part of a Black Economic Empowerment deal.
At the same time, Dutch firm, HNA Group (International) (Netherlands) One BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of HNA International (HNA), has acquired a 6.2% stake in Comair Ltd. HNA Group has already invested in two other African carriers, Africa World Airlines (AW, Accra) in Ghana and Astral Aviation (8V, Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta) in Kenya.
Comair, which owns a British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) franchise alongside its LCC unit, Kulula Air (Johannesburg O.R. Tambo), specializes in domestic South African operations as well as flights to neighbouring Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Namibia, Tanzania, and Zambia.
