Green light for the Mango rescue plan

Airline Mango’s creditors have given its business-rescue plan the green light, opening the way for it to start talks with a potential strategic investor to help relaunch operations.

The creditors were to have voted on the plan on November 15 but the meeting was adjourned at shareholder SAA’s request for it to be amended to include the proviso that the airline find a strategic equity partner first.

The creditors’ meeting went ahead on Thursday morning, with Jordan Butler, chair of the Mango Pilots’ Association saying afterwards that 84.36% of creditors adopted the plan. A 75% vote was required to pass it.

Butler said the fees to be paid to Mango’s business-rescue practitioner Sipho Sono had been approved by 50.35%, with a simple majority needed.

“The business-rescue practitioner envisaged that the investor process will be completed by the end of March 2022, barring any Competition

Commission hurdles that may arise. But they don’t perceive it to be a problem unless it is another local airline that Mango merges with.”

He said no potential strategic equity partner had been named yet, but the process would open “in the coming days”. “They hope to have interested parties in place before the end of March.”

Mango will stay mothballed until there is a partner in place, Butler said. Mango and SAA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The original business rescue plan, published on October 29, was aimed at saving most jobs at the airline, but Mango said in November that a greater number of employees would now be affected.

In November, the Mango Pilots’ Association described SAA’s request for a revised plan and the mothballing of the airline as a blow as it meant “sacrificing the entire workforce at Mango”.

It dashed any hopes of the low-cost carrier being back in the sky by December for the lucrative festive season, as originally envisaged in the proposed business-rescue plan. And it also means that more of the 708 jobs at Mango are likely to be lost than originally thought.

Butler said on Thursday that Mango had received R320m from the department of public enterprises, which would be used to pay retrenchment packages.

BUSINESS-RESCUE PRACTITIONER ENVISAGED THAT THE INVESTOR PROCESS WILL BE COMPLETED BY THE END OF MARCH 2022