Comair (South Africa) (CAW, Johannesburg O.R. Tambo) has raised shortterm financing to tide the firm through the coming weeks wherein its business rescue practitioners will carry out a due diligence on two offers that prospective investors have submitted.

According to internal communcations seen by South Africa's Travel News, Comair chief executive Wrenelle Stander told staff that the ZAR40 million rand (USD2.27 million) shortterm bridge loan would allow Comair, which operates a British Airways franchise and the Kulula Air low-cost brand, to meet its operational overheads and allow its business rescue process to continue.

BRPs Shaun Collyer and Richard Ferguson are due to conclude their reviews of the two offers which were submitted on July 22 (non-binding and with several material conditions to be satisfied prior to such offer being of a binding nature) and July 23 (a binding offer but which also contains several material conditions to be satisfied) respectively.

Given the time needed to assess the offers and determine whether Comair and the BRPs can fulfill each offer's conditions, let alone determine the willingness of Comair's financiers to work with the consortia, the BRPs asked for, and were granted, an extension to August 28 for the publication of Comair's business rescue plan.

"The Practitioners are in the process of considering these latter two offers in order to understand if the parties will be able to fulfill the conditions contemplated in these offers, and if any one of these latter two offers provides a sustainable remedy to the Company's financial distress," the BRPs said in a stock market filing dated July 28.

Comair has been grounded since March this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.