Kenya Airways targets investment next year

Kenya Airways will seek new investors by the second quarter of next year as part of its turnround strategy that will also aim to lower the debt load of the airline, senior executives said on Friday. <br/>Michael Joseph, who was appointed chairman last month following a staff rebellion over the perceived slow pace of recovery after four years of losses, admitted that reviving the carrier would be “difficult”. But he insisted that major shareholders, including Air France-KLM and the Kenyan government, “will do whatever is necessary both financially and in support to turn this airline around”. Joseph also said that Mbuvi Ngunze, chief executive, was “vital” to the turnround strategy and that the unions were no longer insisting that he resign. “They understand the situation we are in and have given us the necessary time to go through this restructuring before we do anything else,” he told his first press conference since joining Kenya Airways from Safaricom, where he had been chief executive of the dominant mobile phone operator. Ngunze said that Kenya Airways was “running two parallel processes” to turn round its finances. “[These are] a capital optimisation programme which is around improving liquidity and looking to reduce our overall debt and talking to people who are potential investors for the future,” he said. “That means that nobody will put money this side of the capital optimisation because any dollar you put in right now will be immediately diluted.” <br/>