I dont see Silverjet being able to reduce costs much, especially if they plan to continue to expand - therefore they need to raise fares / yields - which is actually now possible, with them being the only biz only airline until BA start at LCY! Silverjet should actually work this time round due to lack of competition!

Really great news!

I hope they make a real success of it this time round.

SilverJet Rescued!
 

Taken from Daily Telegraph Website:-

Silverjet, the business-class only airline, is to fly again after being bought out of administration for an undisclosed sum by a Geneva-backed company.

The carrier, which flies to New York and Dubai from Luton airport, has been sold to Kingplace, a shelf-company registered in Ireland and managed by Heritage Cie SA, a Geneva trust and management company.
The offer by Kingplace is being made on behalf of private clients.

It's not clear what role Silverjet chief executive Lawrence hunt will have
Terms of a deal were agreed with Silverjet administrator Begbies Traynor this afternoon. Silverjet's chief executive Lawrence Hunt was involved in the negotiations, though his long-term involvement with the airline is currently unclear.

Silverjet grounded its fleet 10 days ago and collapsed into administration. It owed creditors £40m, £17m of which is secured against its three aircraft.

Of the remaining £23m, £10m is owed to property entrepreneurs Simon and David Reuben. The rest is due to trade creditors. Shareholders have lost everything and creditors are expected to receive only a few pence in the pound - at best.

Industry sources believe Kingplace will need to pump in £20m-£30m of fresh cash to have any realistic chance of reviving the business.
advertisement Aim-listed Silverjet began services on January 25 last year with a daily flight from Luton to New York. It upped that to twice daily and added a service to Dubai.

Mr Hunt refused to blame the soaring oil price for the company's problems, instead pointing the finger at bearish City analysts, who he claimed deterred people from booking.

Analysts had expressed doubts whether Silverjet could survive following the collapse of rivals Eos and MAXjet.

Cool those jets...
 

Silverjet or what its successor might be called, if indeed there is to be one, should not be allowed to leave the ground until ALL debts have been cleared and ALL shareholders bought out.

And I'm neither a creditor nor a shareholder. :)

Enderby, that is the whole point of "administration" creditors get zero, shareholders get zero. Totally legit and acceptable, in the eyes of the law.

From Enderby's post looks as though there are some vested interests.

I have no such connections so hope that Silverjet will be airborne again soon"!

As with any gamble, the higher the reward, the higher the risk. And investing in a start-up airline is a huge risk.

We'd all like to invest in low-risk, high-gain ventures but there's no such thing. If the share price goes through the floor, the company goes t!ts up, and you're an unsecured creditor, them's the blues - surely?

I could speculate - but I won't - that those buying it now were the same that were interested in buying it before.. only now they have it without the debts.

I trust that staff will not be out of pocket on this one.. it's bad enough stitching up the creditors in such a (totally legal!) way.

I think an important question is how does silverjet capture back its bussiness after suddenly stranding 100's of people? Are passengers going to trust this airline again after they suddenly stranded everyone in the cold?

Quote:

---

"I could speculate - but I won't - that those buying it now were the same that were interested in buying it before.. only now they have it without the debts.

I trust that staff will not be out of pocket on this one.. it's bad enough stitching up the creditors in such a (totally legal!) way."

---

Oversteer, in such circumstances, wages and salaries rank no 2 after inland revenue (and customs), then secured creditors, then unsecured creditors and finally shareholders.

Pretty logical really: tough on shareholders maybe but that's the foundation of the system - risk and reward.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle4108253.ece

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - UK all-business-class airline Silverjet Plc. has moved closer to being rescued after reaching a preliminary agreement with Kingplace, an Irish registered company, managed by Swiss investment group Heritage, according to the Financial Times.

The troubled airline, that went into administration May 30, said Kingplace is set "to acquire and relaunch Silverjet".

Contracts are expected to be signed on Friday, the FT said.

To those who think that the Silver Jet business model won't/doesn't work, ask yourselves why is it that Big Airways are launching a business only London-New York service in the near future?
Because there is money to be made in it, might be the answer.

Maybe rumours were spread to the city from undisclosed sources? Competition drowned at birth to enable the big brother to thrive? Remember Laker and Virgin, both attacked, one survived. Conspiracy theories rule!

Good luck to them if they do get going again.

Good luck to all concerned.

Enderby...the whole point is that a buyer takes on Silverjet as a going concern and the sale proceeds are used to settle some or all of the debts. However it certainly won't be all of them.

Goodwill is something that can't be bought and may be tougher to claw back

r101
 

Economies of scale?

I guess that formally ends the complaints about the US bankruptcy laws.

looks like you can not pay your bill in the EU as well and still have an airline.

Cheers
Wino

With ONLY 3 aircraft and its shaky track record, I will think twice before I buy a ticket on SJ!!!:suspect:

VA survived only because SRB had a big asset to borrow against: Virgin Records. If Virgin Records hadn't been there, his airline would've been shut down a LOT earlier. He says as much in his autobiography. He was forced to sell the label (ironically to the company VR had tried to buy before) to satisfy his bank, who gave him the choice of keeping either VR or VA.

Hence him starting V2 Music so he could go back into the record label business.

S.

I wish them the best of luck, however their biggest problem is now going to be one of confidence. Once a business has stopped trading in this fashion it has effectively exposed its underlying weakness to the world. The customers it has let down, the potential customers many of whom would be reluctant to risk being in the same position. The suppliers who may want cash up-front, or hefty security bonds. The credit card companies (without whom the business could not realistically operate) who may demand very high levels of security before they expose themselves to credit risk.

These are very credit risk averse times for banks and institutional lenders, and if they perceive a potential client has already burned someone fingers, even if it wasn't theirs, many of them will not want to know. Confidence is a major issue and you only have to look whats going on generally in the marketplace to realise that times are not good for those companies that cannot provide that confidence in spades.

Give them until mid winter.