South African public enterprises minister has confirmed that a private consortium will buy a 51% stake and inject over $221.6m into long troubled South African Airways. The government has selected the Takatso Consortium, comprising infrastructure investor Harith General Partners and aviation group Global Aviation, as SAA’s preferred strategic equity partner. The Takatso Consortium, which says it will relaunch SAA as “a viable, sustainable, scalable and agile airline,” will own 51% and the Department of Public Enterprises 49%. The consortium said that it intends to list the airline in the future as a way of addressing future funding requirements. In a statement, the consortium said that a due diligence exercise will now get under way. Once completed, the consortium will reveal details including route network rollout, fleet selection, the leadership team, transformation, and brand relaunch, technology, the future of SAA’s subsidiaries, and global partnerships.
SOURCE: AFRICAN BUSINESS