SAS Receives Court Approval for Equity Solicitation Procedures
SAS AB (“SAS” or the “Company”) announces that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Court”) has approved SAS’ equity solicitation procedures. Through these procedures, SAS will run a competitive and broad solicitation process to secure the best available terms and conditions for new equity capital.
On April 6, 2023, SAS announced that the Company had taken the next step in its comprehensive business transformation plan SAS FORWARD, initiating a process to solicit equity investment in a reorganized SAS. Today, the Court has approved the procedures that will govern the Company’s equity solicitation process. The deadline for potential investors to present final bids takes place in approximately 13 weeks.
Anko van der Werff, President and Chief Executive Officer of SAS, says:
“The equity raise process is the key next step in SAS FORWARD, our transformation plan that aims to improve our financial strength, secure long-term competitiveness and fortify our position as Scandinavia’s leading airline. We will conduct a competitive and broad solicitation process to secure equity capital that will help drive our airline forward and facilitate our emergence from the chapter 11 process.”
Additional Information About the Chapter 11 Process and implementation of SAS FORWARD
On July 5, 2022, to accelerate the implementation of its comprehensive business transformation plan SAS FORWARD, SAS announced that it had voluntarily filed for chapter 11 in the U.S., a well-established and flexible legal framework for restructuring businesses with operations in multiple jurisdictions. Through this process, SAS aims to reach agreements with key stakeholders, restructure the Company’s debt obligations, reconfigure its aircraft fleet, and emerge with a significant capital injection.
At the outset of its restructuring process, the Company’s SAS FORWARD plan envisioned raising at least SEK 9.5 billion in new equity capital as well as reducing or converting SEK 20 billion of debt (of which a majority is on-balance sheet debt), including state hybrid notes, commercial hybrid notes, Swiss bonds, term loans from states, aircraft lease liabilities and maintenance contract obligations and other executory contract obligations. The final amount of equity financing raised will depend upon the competitive equity raise process along with the Company’s ongoing ability to generate additional liquidity.
SAS targets to complete its court-supervised process in the U.S. in the latter part of the second half of 2023.
Additional information about the Company’s voluntary chapter 11 process is available on the Company’s dedicated restructuring website, https://sasgroup.net/transformation. Court filings and other documents related to the chapter 11 process in the U.S. are available on a separate website administered by SAS’ claims agent, Kroll Restructuring Administration LLC, at https://cases.ra.kroll.com/SAS. Information is also available by calling (844) 242-7491 (U.S./Canada) or +1 (347) 338-6450 (International), as well as by email at SASInfo@ra.kroll.com.
Advisors
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is serving as global legal counsel and Mannheimer Swartling Advokatbyrå AB is serving as Swedish legal counsel to SAS. Seabury Securities LLC and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB are serving as investment bankers, Seabury is also serving as restructuring advisor, and FTI Consulting is serving as financial advisor to SAS.
For further information, please contact:
SAS Press office, +46 8 797 29 44
Investor Relations, +46 70 997 7070
SAS, Scandinavia’s leading airline, with main hubs in Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm, is flying to destinations in Europe, USA and Asia. Spurred by a Scandinavian heritage and sustainable values, SAS aims to be the global leader in sustainable aviation. We will reduce total carbon emissions by 25 percent by 2025, by using more sustainable aviation fuel and our modern fleet with fuel-efficient aircraft. In addition to flight operations, SAS offers ground handling services, technical maintenance and air cargo services. SAS is a founder member of the Star Alliance™, and together with its partner airlines offers a wide network worldwide. Learn more at https://www.sasgroup.net.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The press release does not constitute an offer to sell or issue, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or acquire, or subscribe for, shares or any other financial instruments in SAS.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect SAS’ current view of future events as well as financial and operational development. These statements may include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as “intend”, “assess”, “expect”, “may”, “plan”, “estimate” and other expressions involving indications or predictions regarding future development or trends and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. These forward-looking statements have been prepared for illustrative purposes only, are not based on historical facts, are not guarantees of future performance, reflect SAS’ beliefs and expectations, and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions and other factors that could cause actual events and performance to differ materially from any expected future events or performance expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. As a result of these risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual future events or otherwise. The information contained in this press release is subject to change without notice and, except as required by applicable law, SAS does not assume any responsibility or obligation to update publicly or review any of the forward-looking statements contained in it, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Nothing in this press release constitutes or should be construed as constituting a profit forecast.