South Africa

A South African court placed state-owned SA Express under “provisional liquidation” on Tuesday after the airline’s administrators said rescue efforts weren’t likely to succeed, Reuters reported. SA Express, which flies to domestic and regional destinations, entered a form of bankruptcy protection earlier this year after losing a court battle with a contractor, logistics firm Ziegler. It later suspended all operations as the global COVID-19 pandemic caused demand for flights to plunge and governments to impose travel restrictions.

South Africa’s government and specialists appointed to try to save the state-owned airline have agreed to extend a deadline for trade unions to agree staff severance terms, a letter from the public enterprises department showed on Saturday, Reuters reported. South African Airways (SAA) entered a form of bankruptcy protection in December and its fortunes deteriorated further when the coronavirus pandemic forced it to suspend all commercial flights.

South African Airways (SAA) faces a wind-down or liquidation after specialists appointed to try to save the state-owned airline said on Thursday they had run out of funds, Reuters reported. SAA has been fighting for its survival since it entered a form of bankruptcy protection in December. Its fortunes deteriorated further when the coronavirus pandemic forced it to suspend all commercial flights. It has already offered severance packages to its workforce of roughly 5,000 people after the government said it would not provide more funds for rescue efforts.

South Africa’s government has been urged to rescue its state-owned agricultural bank to avoid the risk of farmers being starved of access to financing and threatening food security, Bloomberg News reported. Failure by the Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa to lend to farmers and agri-processing businesses would have a “massive impact” on local food supplies, said Omri Van Zyl, the executive director for AgriSA, the nation’s largest farmers group. The Land Bank is seeking waivers from its lenders after missing a loan repayment, triggering a default event.

South Africa is considering bailing out yet another state-owned company, at a time when it needs all the money it can get to revive an economy felled by the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The National Treasury said Tuesday it’s mulling more aid for the nation’s largest agricultural lender, the Land and Agricultural Development Bank, in the form of a recapitalization and more guarantees on its debt. Last week, the state-owned national airline failed to convince the government it needs extra financial aid, although talks on alternatives for South African Airways continue.

The South African government will work with unions to ensure that a new financially viable and competitive airline emerges from South African Airways (SAA) business rescue process, the Public Enterprises Ministry said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The airline entered a form of bankruptcy protection in December, since then it has had to suspend all commercial passenger flights due to the global coronavirus pandemic.

South African Airways (SAA) is offering severance packages to its entire workforce of around 5,000 workers, a proposal by the airline’s administrators showed, after the government said it wouldn’t provide more funds for rescue efforts, Reuters reported. The proposal, which was put to trade unions this week and hasn’t been agreed with them, is the latest sign that state-owned SAA is on the brink of collapse. Talks with unions will resume on Monday.

South African Airways has been denied any further funding by its government owner as the national carrier looks for ways to recover from the coronavirus crisis and a local form of bankruptcy protection, Bloomberg News reported. The airline’s administrators, who were put in charge in December, were told by the state to instead source cash from available resources, according to a letter they sent to affected parties and to Bloomberg News dated April 14.

South Africa’s central bank slashed its growth forecasts on Monday, predicting the economy could shrink by as much as 4% in 2020 due to the novel coronavirus, which has forced a national lockdown and triggered two credit ratings downgrades, Reuters reported. The bank also said growth was unlikely to exceed 1% in 2021, job losses this year could reach 370,000, and business insolvencies would likely increase by 1,600. While painting a grim outlook, it dampened expectations of the kind of radical stimulus measures Western countries have adopted to tackle it.

South Africa’s rand weakened to a record low, dollar bonds plunged and banking stocks dropped after the country lost its last investment-grade credit rating. Investors anticipate it may slide even deeper into junk as the spread of the coronavirus hammers the economy, Bloomberg News reported. The currency dropped as much as 2.5% to 18.09 per dollar, breaching 18 for the first time. It traded 1.1% down at 17.82 by 12:46 p.m. in Johannesburg, still the worst performance among major emerging-market currencies after the Mexican peso.