South African government to explore alternative financial avenues for developing SAA

South Africa’s government is confident that flag-carrier South African Airways will be able to continue expanding despite the collapse of a long-running effort to sell a majority share to private investors. Investor consortium Takatso had been set to take a 51% share of the airline, but the two sides have agreed to halt the process some two-and-a-half years after the consortium was selected as a partner. South Africa’s department of public enterprises says the current government – and the government to be elected during national elections in May – will take steps to “stabilise” the airline. It adds that a “new form of raising finances” based on SAA’s assets will be explored with financial institutions. “We are confident that SAA will continue to fly and grow in terms of the number of routes and aircraft that it is able to lease,” the department says. “SAA now enters a new chapter of its life.” It has attributed the failure of the drawn-out privatisation to the government’s inability to reach a revised agreement with Takatso, one which would take account of SAA’s increasing value during post-pandemic recovery.<br/>