Former Avianca chairman offers to buy Ultra Air for $1 US dollar

In Colombia, local media is reporting that South American industrialist Germán Efrómovich has offered aviation entrepreneur William Shaw and the shareholders of insolvent low-cost airline Ultra Air the tidy sum of $1 US Dollar to take over the airline. Efromovich is said to have stipulated that he would not pay managerial compensation or severances as part of any such deal, and reports say that Shaw and other investors have already rejected the offer. According to Colombian daily El Tiempo, Ultra Air owes $8m in bank debt and $14m in outstanding accounts payable. Bolivian-born Germán Efromovich entered the airline business when a debtor in Brazil paid him in kind with a single aircraft. He ended up purchasing a controlling interest in then-struggling Colombian airline Avianca in 2004, growing it into a thriving international airline until disputes with minority shareholder Roberto Kriete and a crippling pilots’ strike led to operational problems and Avianca’s bankruptcy soon after the COVID pandemic began. When Efromovich couldn’t pay back a loan from United Airlines collateralized by his shares in Avianca, he lost control of the airline and was unceremoniously ousted and replaced by his nemesis Kriete. Efromovich, who still owns assets such as Medellín’s iconic Intercontinental Hotel and his Movich chain of business hotels, has been on something of a comeback after launching Italian carrier Aeroitalia, and has even become a popular youtuber.<br/>