A consortium of Air France-KLM, Castlelake, Lind Invest and the Danish state is investing 12.9 billion SEK in the airline. SAS said in a press release on Tuesday, October 3.
“After the implementation of the agreement, the four parties will share the ownership,” said SAS chairman of the board, Danish Carsten Dilling, at the press conference in Stockholm.
Air France-KLM will invest up to $144.5 million and receive 19.9% of SAS. The company will have the option to take a controlling interest after two years, according to the press release. The Danish state increases its share of ownership in the Scandinavian airline from 21.8 percent to 25.8 percent.
Overview over ownership:
Castlelake will own 32.0%
The Danish state will own 25.8%
Air France-KLM gets a share of 19.9%
Lind Invest will own 8.6%
The remaining 13.6 percent will be distributed among certain creditors.
SAS will be delisted as a part of the restructuring, and will thereby be taken off the stock exchange in 2024. This means that the current shareholders will lose their shares in the airline, since the shares will be worthless. The delisting of SAS will affect around 255,000 shareholders, according to Norwegian NRK.
“This project confirms Air France-KLM’s ambition to play an active role in Europe,” the airline group said about the acquisition.
Prior to the biding, the governments of Denmark and Sweden each owned 21.8% of SAS. Sweden indicated it would accept a conversion of debt into equity, but wouldn’t participate in a new capital raise. Norway’s government also declined to contribute any equity after selling its last stake in the company in 2018.
Source: TV2
