Who is buying SAX?

[VS -1500 fpm]

Does any one know anything about who is going to buy SAX?

[Deskjocky]

Has this debate started up again? SAX has been on "sale" for ages. No one wants to buy due to the debt the company carries. Basically the airline is profitable and makes money day to day but has this liability that it needs to service every month- thanks to some pretty dodgy decisions taken by certain previous CEO’s who will remain nameless. A real shame, I don’t have the latest gen but it appears as if they have been making some good returns over the last few years- so perhaps they are now in a position to look more attractive.

Thing is, who ever buys it- and it would probably have to be a another airline- needs to be quite sure on what the they want to do strategically. They are in the same boat as Airlink, SAA does all the check-in (with the exception of a few places like KIM and BFN), revenue accounting, distribution etc. Also most of their traffic is corporate- over half of their customers are Voyager members. As you can well imagine this leaves them very vulnerable if they accept an offer from say a Comair (not that Comair would- they only want to due the due diligence to see if they can do it themselves) If this did happen then SAA would be forced to make a play.

Its in fact the identical situation as when Airlink was told that SAA would not continue the Franchise agreement- the terrible twosome got all sulky and went and talked to almost every airline operating into SA. They chose not to listen to the reason for the cancellation and tried to go it alone- all good and well right up to the point when they realised how vulnerable they were without SAA and quickly cuddled back up and we all became friends again- reason SAA had a trump card…SAX. Same thing now just in reverse and knowing the guys who run SAX, I doubt they would even bother going down that road.

[CJ750]

Heard a rumour that SAX is/was offered to Comair for R1.00(ONE RAND) if they withdrew from the competition case against SAA a while back......

Sounds crazy. Anyone else heard this:confused:

[nugpot]

Heard a rumour that SAX is/was offered to Comair for R1.00(ONE RAND) if they withdrew from the competition case against SAA a while back......

Sounds crazy. Anyone else heard this:confused:

Not true. Also, does not make sense because SAA does not own one cent of SAX, so they have no input on SAX's future. With Transnet getting out of passenger services, they won't have any motive to offer SAX to Comair to help SAA.

Comair wanted to see SAX's books to look at a future offer, but SAX cannot currently be sold until the legislation is promulgated, so nobody has had a look at the books so far.

SAX made a tidy profit last year and we are carrying more passengers than ever, so thing are looking good for he future. We have also expanded by 40% over the last year and might add more aircraft during 2007.

[George Tower]

MANGO perhaps:E

[Q4NVS]

MANGO perhaps:E

Litchi Express...? Nah, don't think so.:}

My personal opinion: DTI (as with SAA)
Min Erwin was quoted less than 3 months ago, saying that "they" could not afford to "loose" SAX before 2010 (either...)

The way things are going at the moment, SAX might just put in a bid to buy a majority stake in Comair. :ooh:

(Don't shoot the messenger)

:E

[Q4NVS]

SAX made a tidy profit last year...

If I am not mistaken, these figures approached the 20% margins.

Very good, considering that Ryanair (until recently), was the only airline in the world to do 20%+ margins, averaging between 21% and 26%.

Hey, SAX is not even a LCC...:D

No surprise Comair wanted so dearly to have a peak at those books and probably more so at the "Formula 4 Success" ;)