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Gov't has in principle agreement with SAA strategic partner

The South African government has reached “an agreement in principle” with an as-yet-unnamed strategic equity partner for the relaunch of South African Airways (SA, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo), says public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan.

“There is an agreement in principle that there is a possibility of a partnership,” he told Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises on June 2, 2021. Both parties were now conducting due diligence procedures, a process expected to be concluded within four to eight weeks. He declined to disclose the identity of the strategic partner for “commercially sensitive” reasons.

He said the in-principle deal was that the private sector equity partner would inject new capital for the airline's revival, while the government would spend ZAR14 billion rand (USD1 billion) to “clean up” the historic debts of the airline. “That is the grand bargain we have actually entered into,” he said.

He said once the due diligence process was concluded, a sales and purchase agreement would be entered into, which would finalise the arrangement. “Within that process, we have to ensure that we...

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