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.