BREAKING NEWS : Qatar Airways has confirmed another investment deal

September 5, 2024 admin_Eurosport Bristol Bears 0

Doha-based carrier is in talks to purchase a share in smaller airline. Airlink Please use the sharing options available through the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others violates FT.com’s terms and conditions and copyright policy. To purchase additional rights, please email [email protected]. Subscribers can share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service.Qatar Airways is nearing an agreement to acquire a stake in South Africa’s largest regional airline, Airlink, in the next chapter of the Gulf carrier’s ambitious expansion across the continent.

The two sides have held detailed conversations about an investment from Qatar Airways, which is completely owned by the Qatari government. However, no definitive contract has yet been

According to sources familiar with the situation, a resolution has been reached.Please use the sharing options available through the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others violates FT.com’s terms and conditions and copyright policy. To purchase additional rights, please email [email protected]. Subscribers can share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service.The investment would expand Qatar Airways’ network in southern Africa, allowing the carrier to serve passengers from regional locations and eventually route more traffic via its Doha hub.Qatar Airways signals appetite for more deals after Airlink investment

Qatar Airways CEO Badr Mohammed Al Meer stated that the airline is in the “final, final stages” of investing in a southern African carrier, but did not name Airlink.

He said.Eng. Badr Mohammed Al Meer, Chief Operating Officer At Hamad International Airport: Flying High

Following a collaboration with Royal Air Maroc and a projected investment in 49% of central Africa’s RwandAir, southern Africa was the “missing piece of the equation” in the carrier’s regional network.Please use the sharing options available through the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others violates FT.com’s terms and conditions and copyright policy. To purchase additional rights, please email [email protected]. Subscribers can share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service.”This airline in the southern part of Africa was important to us to create a network and cover every city in the continent,” according to him.

According to a source familiar with the discussions, Airlink has been discussing

For some time, there have been “various opportunities” with the Qataris, including a possible stock investment.Qatar Airways to announce African airline deal in “weeks” | Times Aerospace

When approached by the Financial Times, Airlink’s CEO Rodger Foster stated, “Airlink is always exploring opportunities and is in conversations with several existing airline partners.” However, we have not made any binding strategic equity investments.”Please use the sharing options available through the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others violates FT.com’s terms and conditions and copyright policy. To purchase additional rights, please email [email protected]. Subscribers can share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service.The airline, which has 66 active aircraft, transports over 3 million passengers annually to locations in more than

15 sub-Saharan African countries, including South Africa, Botswana and Tanzania, as well as the remote island of St Helena in the south Atlantic.
Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service.
The company was established 32 years ago by Foster and Barrie Webb, two years before South Africa’s first democratic election at the end of apartheid.
Shareholders include Foster and Webb, investment company Coronation Capital, and the Sishen Iron Ore Community Development Trust, which holds 32.5 per cent on behalf of 350,000 poor families from South Africa’s Northern Cape.
The airline is profitable, and those close to the negotiations said its motivation for any equity deal would be strategic, rather than financial.
A deal would “have to deliver significant benefits in terms of increased traffic, broader and deeper market reach, lower distribution costs and heft when negotiating with suppliers, lessors and insurers”, one person said,
Qatar Airways already flies to some 30 destinations across Africa, a region where demand for air travel is forecast to grow rapidly as economies develop. US plane maker Boeing has estimated that intra-African passenger traffic will more than quadruple over the next 20 years.
“Airlink’s scale as a regional airline is suitable for Qatar, and it is well-run, with a conservative management team which have kept it profitable for a long time,” said Dr Joachim Vermooten, a transport economist at the University of Johannesburg.
Vermooten said Airlink was one of the few South African airlines to emerge from Covid stronger than before, and was able to capture a larger share of the regional market once the national carrier, South African Airways, was placed in business rescue.Please use the sharing options available through the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others violates FT.com’s terms and conditions and copyright policy. To purchase additional rights, please email [email protected]. Subscribers can share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. Additional information can be obtained atThe only sticking point in any arrangement is South Africa’s air licensing requirements, which require domestic airlines to be 75% owned by South Africans and cross-border carriers to be “substantially” held by citizens. However, Vermooten noted these local ownership limits are gradually being reduced globally to allow local airlines have the financial wherewithal to “increase their capital base”

 

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