Cape Times 2022-06-10

News about Comair’s challenges has put a damper on the South African aviation industry. This is an illustrious brand, and I never expected this to happen. True, things happen in a precarious aviation sector, where the industry lacks coherence and anticipation – an important mix for its long-term survival. Comair’s grounding is a huge hiccup for the South African aviation and adds to a worse situation where the country’s national carrier, SAA, hasn’t flown for some time. What a shameful, double tragedy for our aviation.…

COMAIR shareholders will struggle to receive any return on their shares based on earlier scenarios of the airline’s liquidation. Its business rescue practitioners (BRPs), Richard Ferguson and Neil Hablutzel, yesterday pulled the plug on any further attempts to rescue the stricken airline, and said it should be liquidated. Comair’s new owners since it was delisted from the JSE on April 6, 2021, at R4.19 per share, are former directors Martin Moritz, Pieter van Hoven and Rodney Sacks, and an investment vehicle, Luthier Capital. The airline had been listed on the JSE since 1998. The owners had been trying to raise about R100 million to make up for loss of revenue due to travel bans to South Africa in the wake of Covid-19’s effects, and due to the impact of…

THE IMPACT of Comair’s liquidation was a significant loss to the nation, and sub-Saharan Africa, and would likely impact not only business and private trips, but the industry and those who supply the failed firm, Kevin Storie, the acting chief executive of Commercial Aviation Association of Southern Africa (Caasa) said yesterday. Storie said that there was the possibility of a significant increase in ticket prices due to availability. Caasa promotes and protect the commercial interest of the general aviation industry in southern Africa. Its member companies include airport operators, non-scheduled operators, business aircraft operators, flying training organisations, aircraft maintenance companies and companies offering a whole range of supporting and retail services. Storie said while the organisation did not represent scheduled operators such as Comair, the liquidation of the airliner was…

Business rescue practitioners yesterday lodged a court application for the airline’s liquidation COMAIR’S liquidation was written on the wall due to a series of bad decisions and mishaps, aviation analyst Phuthego Mojapili said yesterday. This as the business rescue practitioners (BRPs) of the battling firm, which operates British Airways and kalula.com flights, yesterday lodged a court application to change the status to liquidation proceedings because additional funding could not be secured to save the ailing airline. In a note yesterday, BRPs advised creditors that it was no longer useful to save Comair. Comair has been flying in South Africa since 1946 and has been in busi- ness rescue for the past two years. Mojapili outlined the nosedive that led to the liquidation. – When Comair committed to buying eight…

VUKILE Property Fund, the specialist retail real estate investment trust (Reit), had seen a return to pre-Covid levels at its shopping centres and was acquiring two more in South Africa, chief executive Laurence Rapp said yesterday. Although the group, which is invested in retail in Spain and in regional dominant centres in South Africa, did not disclose the names of the two centres, the potential deals mark a shift among South Africa’s listed property companies, as most Reits have through the pandemic disposed of lesser performing assets and conserved cash to reduce debt, rather than buy new centres. “We operate in the sweet spot in the South African market, with significant exposure to brilliantly performing township and rural shopping centres, where trading densities are up 10.2 percent and…

THE ONGOING energy crisis in South Africa could cost the country billions of rand in lost tax revenue from the currently lucrative mining industry as production slows in spite of elevated commodity prices. This comes as the mining industry is battling delays in exporting commodities due to logistical challenges following a force majeure by Transnet due to legal proceedings and vandalism on its railway lines. Data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) yesterday showed that mining production in the country fell more than expected in April, mainly due to the ongoing power crisis. Stats SA said mining production slumped by a hefty 14.9 percent year-on-year in April following a downwardly revised 7.5 percent fall in March. This mining output was worse than market forecasts of a 5…