Mauritius to inject $282m to revive national airline

Mauritius government is set to reimburse 9.5b rupees ($223.5m) to creditors of the state-owned airline and provide an additional 2.5b rupees to help the carrier emerge from voluntary administration. The Air Mauritiusdebt-restructuring plan is in a report by administrators Sattar Hajee Abdoula and Arvindsingh K. Gokhool ahead of meetings with three classes of creditors scheduled for Sept. 28. Aircraft lessors will be called to vote for a 65% cut on their claims, while hedge counterparties will be asked to take a 40% reduction. In the report dated Sept. 21, the administrators urge creditors to accept the proposed arrangement. If all approvals are secured, the airline will come out of deed administration on Nov. 1, the administrators said. “It offers greater certainty and speed of return than the other options,” the administrators said. The payouts “will be funded by a shareholder loan through a government-owned entity and will be distributed to creditors by Oct. 31.” Getting Air Mauritius back on track as soon as possible will have a positive impact for the tourism-dependent Indian Ocean island economy. The country is set to reopen borders to vaccinated tourists holding a negative PCR test on arrival as from Oct. 1. Air Mauritius has been under voluntary administration since April 2020. In the 15 years through fiscal year ended March 2019, the airline incurred losses in seven years. <br/>