SA Express Airline Up for Auction
Joint Provisional Liquidators (JPL) has been tasked with selling the assets of SA Express (a South African airline). The agency is calling for Expressions of Interest (EOI) from buyers interested in acquiring the bankrupt carrier either as a whole or piecemeal.
The liquidators value the airline at R113 million. These assets include eight Bombardier CRJ200 jets, engines and spare parts, GSE, specialised tooling, workshop and support equipment, licences, IT infrastructure, and other intangible assets required to operate an airline in South Africa.
What’s more, there are four CRJ200ERs. They are ZS-NMI (msn 7153), ZS-NML (msn 7201), ZS-NMM (msn 7234), and ZS-NMN (msn 7237) – all parked at Johannesburg O.R. Tambo. In addition, there are General Electric CF34-3B1 powerplants, spare parts, rotables, tools, and support equipment. SA Express’s various licences (operator’s licence, AOC, AMO, ATNS, ICASA etc.) are also up for sale. The deadline for the submission of offers is July 21, 2020.
SA Express is in provisional liquidation and would have gone into final liquidation on June 9 had its JPLs not asked for an extension until September 9 to allow the airline’s sole shareholder, the South African state, time to explore all avenues of opportunity regarding its salvage. At the time, Aviwe Ndyamara, who heads the team tasked with the provisional liquidation of SA Express, told a parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) in June that “seven parties” had shown an interest in the airline.
Any sale must be completed in early July as SA Express has two licences which are set to expire on July 31, 2020, and December 31, 2020, respectively. The intention is, therefore, to complete either a sales or investment agreement before the expiration of the licences.
