Apollo Global Management wants to join the consortium that won the winning bid last week to take more than 86% ownership of SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup) in exchange for USD1.175 billion in Chapter 11 exit financing, Reuters reports, quoting an unidentified source "familiar with the matter".

The US investment firm was not immediately available for comment.

SAS announced last week that Air France-KLM, lessor Castlelake, Danish investment firm Lind Invest, and the Danish state were the preferred bidders pending regulator and customary approvals, pipping to the post Apollo Global Management, which last year provided USD700 million debtor-in-possession (DIP) loan financing to the airline to help fund its restructuring. Apollo could convert the loan into equity at the end of the process.

"Apollo is still an active bidder," the source told Reuters, adding that the firm could inject additional money into SAS on top of the winning consortium's contribution. It was unclear how significant a stake Apollo would seek or how much it would invest.

Air France-KLM and SAS declined to comment. ch-aviation also approached Castlelake for a response.

As reported, Apollo Global Management last week failed to delay an October 12 hearing for the New York Bankruptcy Court to approve reimbursing USD3 million to the winning consortium for their expenses related to the bid, but also filed an objection to the motion for their expense reimbursement.

Meanwhile, in a statement to the court, the official committee of unsecured creditors supported the reimbursement, disclosing that the consortium would provide USD325 million in cash and equity to general unsecured creditors in terms of the bid, which was "a tremendous improvement over the projected recoveries [...] contemplated by the initial indications of interest that the debtors received".

The consortium's bid must still go through several processes in the coming months, including finalising investment documents, the New York Bankruptcy Court's approval of a disclosure statement and the Chapter 11 reorganisation plan incorporating the proposed transaction, and a Swedish reorganisation of SAS AB.