Norse Air in serious trouble!
TooBadsoSad:
“You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. When the majority of people eventually discover your unethical behaviour, they are sure to write you off.” - Anonymous.
Somebody is feeding you donkey doo and you are eating it for figs. If not that you are are deliberately confusing our readers and members and must have an agenda for doing doing so. The real truth is that the situation is nothing that you describe.
Norse has no government contract. They merely bid/tender along with all the others on an equal footing!
The SAAB's are a liability and ownership is becoming a disaster day by day.
Their woe's are also not limited to the legal steps that Lonrho has taken against them, but compounded by the "Russian" who demanded his money refunded for the initial acquisition of the SAAB's - which was settled out of court and Norse still trying to repay.
And then for the biggest lie of all, their relationship with Lonrho which you suggest is all rosy and honky dorey:
This from chairman's report Year End Results of Lonhro:
Norse Air Limited ("Norse Air")
* Because of a dispute with the management and the effect that this had
on the business, Lonrho has made the decision to fully provide against the
carrying value of its investment in Norse Air, effectively excluding it from
Lonrho Group operations, as at 30 September 2007.
The management situation at Norse Air, which is more fully explained in theChief Executives' Review of Operations, resulted in us instigating legal actionagainst Norse Air and its non-Lonrho nominated Directors in December 2007. YourBoard felt that this approach was necessary to protect the Group's interests.This legal action is currently ongoing. As a result, a provision of £4.4million has been made to write off our investment in Norse Air, which hasadversely affected the results of the year.
Report from CEO of Lonrho
Norse Air Limited ("Norse Air")
Lonrho's original investment in Norse Air was made in November 2006. Norse Air
is a charter, leasing and maintenance company that operates from a base in South
Africa. Although we initially only acquired 43% of this company we believed that, through the terms of the shareholder agreement, we had control and hence Norse was treated as a subsidiary of the Group and its results were fully consolidated for the period since acquisition in our interim results for the six
months ended 31 March 2007. Lonrho believed that it had increased its
shareholding in Norse to 51% on 5 September 2007. However this is disputed by
the other shareholders and is now subject to ongoing legal action.
Unfortunately, we have also subsequently had a number of other serious issues
with management of Norse Air (who own the balance of the equity). It has been
argued by the management that Lonrho cannot exercise the control that we believe
we had. As a result of this, our investment in Norse Air has now been classified
as a participating interest in the consolidated accounts, for the whole of the
period since the date of the original acquisition.
Because of the serious loss of confidence in the management of Norse Air and the effect that this has had on the business, we have made the decision to fully
provide against the carrying value of our investment as at 30 September 2007.
This has resulted in a loss of £4.4m in the year to September 2007. The Board
believes that this was the most prudent approach to take given the ongoing
uncertainty of the outcomes of the various legal actions, including to gain
access to the financial records of the Norse Air group of companies, that we
have been forced to take against the management of Norse Air. This legal action
is currently ongoing.
The Board confirms that, other than the ongoing legal costs associated with the
action being taken against the management of Norse Air, there is no further
exposure to Lonrho in relation to any liabilities of Norse Air.
The Board has agreed that Lonrho will not inject any further funds into the
Norse Air group of companies to settle any liabilities or losses that have, or
may have, been incurred. It is therefore with regret that, having been left with
no alternative but to instigate legal action in December 2007 for full
disclosure from the management, we have had to take the drastic step of
excluding Norse Air from the Lonrho Group operations with effect from 30
September 2007.
The Board did not take this decision lightly. However, it was felt necessary in
the circumstances in order to protect Lonrho shareholders from any further exposure in respect of Norse Air.
Read the writing on the wall - before it is too late!!!!