SA Express, which has been in liquidation since April 2020 has been purchased by South African consortium Fly-SAX for an estimated value of R50-million, according to EWN.
Fly-SAX has reportedly already paid R24.7-million of the purchase price.
SA Express has been purchased by Fly-SAX for R50-million
The news was announced by provisional liquidators of SA Express, Aviwe Ndyamara, while briefing Parliament about potential bidders.
While speaking to Parliament’s select committee on public enterprises and communication, Ndyamara said, ‘The sales process has been engaged and concluded. The preferred bidder is Fly-SAX, with a purchase price of R50 million. We have received to date about R24-million, and the outstanding balance still payable is in the amount of no less than R26-million,’ as reported by EWN.
The purchase of the airline still leaves many unanswered questions, the main concern is whether SA Express staff will be paid outstanding salaries. SA Express currently owes creditors around R980-million and South African Revenue Service (SARS) R150-million.
In terms of the airlines’ workforce, SA Express owes R183-million in outstanding salaries. This is broken up into three outstanding payments, R81-million in severance packages, R43-million for leave pay, and a further R59-million in outstanding salaries, according to EWN.
Ndyamara confirmed that while employees do enjoy a ‘special preference in terms of insolvency law’, they will only be paid once the creditor fees have been settled.
‘At this stage, it is unclear if there will be a residue for payment of the employee claims,’ said Ndyamara while speaking to Parliament.
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