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Norse Air running on empty

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Old 5th Apr 2008, 14:45
  #21 (permalink)  
 
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Dave Avnit is still involved and Lonhro still owns 50% of the company. They also own the G3, ZS-LAH. It is in for a major check and a refurb, plus the post about corrosion is true.

Norse has some really great people working for them, including Sej Dunning, who any ex-Rossair pilot would hold in the highest regard.

They also have strong SAAF contracts using Russian aircraft.

Dave is a survivor and hopefully he will keep Norse together.
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Old 5th Apr 2008, 20:11
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Survivor

Excellent to hear he's still at the helm ..
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Old 6th Apr 2008, 19:52
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Thumbs up Norse

The Kabul contract is going strong....it is now in the hands of ex Balmoral Robin Reid. The percentages of ownership may have changed and there is a new name involved, but there are more a/c on their way to KBL. Current machines are 3 x BE20, 2 x B190, 2 x Bell212 and even an Mi-8. Salaries are around $ 4500 for FO's. Tours are normally around 2 months on 1 off & 6 weeks on & 6 off for captains.

Regarding Norse, if anyone knows the CP, he does not bull****. There is some heavy metal in the pipeline and here's to their success....same old boardroom barrel-rolls all contract companies go thru...

Last edited by Golf_Seirra; 8th Apr 2008 at 16:55.
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Old 6th Apr 2008, 22:16
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The corrosion is worse than they thought and looks like that GIII not in good shape, but they looking at a GIV..some crew gonna b happy to get on that machine! O`l Robin Reid still lining the pockets there then..?
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Old 7th Apr 2008, 06:01
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Sej

Hi all, I have lost touch with Sej since he was in Singapore. Does anyone have a current email address for him? Please drop me a private message if you can!

Thanks!
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Old 8th Apr 2008, 12:53
  #26 (permalink)  
AAL
 
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Exclamation 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!!!!
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Old 10th Apr 2008, 20:21
  #27 (permalink)  
 
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AAL, I only became aware of the full situation with Lonrho and Norse yesterday and you are correct in most of what you have stated. This is certainly not looking good for Norse or their directors, but I certainly hope that they manage to keep their heads above water as there are many good people working for Norse

However, I disagree that the Saabs are a liability as they are great aircraft which could have made Norse a lot of money if they had been placed in the correct environment and on viable contracts.

Last edited by TooBadSoSad; 10th Apr 2008 at 20:33.
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Old 11th Apr 2008, 05:30
  #28 (permalink)  
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You are correct, the SAAB's on the correct routes and applications will work but single aircraft operations thousands of km's from home and AMO, under dubious circumstances and with/for/under suspect circumstances is a liability. They are trying more and more desperate things with these machines with dubious operators which will eventualy bite them big time.

In this industry (and in life) we have all learned, dont do desperate things when in doubt - its fatal.

As for their IL-76, it was leased but now long gone, returned to its owner.

Yes, of course there are fine people at Norse and one hopes that everything works out for them, but while some above praise Avnit, it is exactly the management who through short sightedness and over hasty "greed", that managed the company into this situation.

Their only chance (if it is still possible) is to rationalise, shed their unnecessary baggage, and again focuss on their core business that initialy distinguished them in the African industry.

"To have a small, lean, and efficient successful aviation business - first try a big one!"
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Old 5th Jun 2008, 12:16
  #29 (permalink)  
 
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I heard that there is another company starting up in South Africa under the balmoral name. I think it's called Balmoral Air Charter and rumour has it that Robin Reid's involved. Don't know how true it is though.
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Old 6th Nov 2008, 15:07
  #30 (permalink)  
 
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Bad News ????????

Does anyone have anymore info on what is happening at Norse Air? I heard that they possibly may be stopping ops tomorrow. Two of my associates know several people who have been made redundant. What is happening to contract companies in South Africa?
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Old 7th Nov 2008, 03:54
  #31 (permalink)  
 
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rumor

Heard the same rumor yesterday from our reps attending the Raytheon conference.
If true, this is NOT good news, as peoples jobs and livelihood are at stake.
I hope that it is just that, a rumor - there are already too many pilots and aviation Ops people looking for jobs, Cv's are flying in at about 20 per day.
Good luck to all of you.
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Old 7th Nov 2008, 06:04
  #32 (permalink)  
 
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The economic crisis is coming to bear on SA aviation...things will get a whole lot worse before they get better I reckon.
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