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Tag: businessman

AirAsia Group Welcomes Dr. Stanley Choi as Substantial Shareholder

February 28, 2021 /

AirAsia Group Berhad (Kuala Lumpur: 5099.KL) is pleased to announce that Dr. Stanley Choi Chiu Fai has joined the Group as a substantial shareholder via his wholly-owned entity Positive Boom Ltd. on 18 February 2021. He acquired 167.1 million AirAsia shares in the first tranche of the private placement, raising his shareholding in the group to 332.5 million shares equating to a 8.96% stake.

Dr. Stanley Choi is the Chairman of Head & Shoulders Financial Group, as well as the Chairman and Executive Director of International Entertainment Corporation (IEC), a company listed on the main board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange (1009.HK). He is also the only co-founding member from Hong Kong for YunFeng Capital – a private equity fund started in 2010 by a group of successful entrepreneurs and influential industry leaders, named after its co-founder Jack Ma Yun, founder of Alibaba Group, and David Yu Feng, founder of Target Media.

His previous directorships include his appointment as Executive Director of Target Insurance (Holdings) Limited (stock code: 6161.HK) from 2014 to 2019, Director of ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co. Limited (stock code: 6060.HK) from 2013 to 2016 and Executive Director of Media Asia Group Holdings Limited (stock code: 8075.HK) from 2011 to 2015.

The successful businessman possesses more than 20 years of experience in financial services and merger & acquisition transactions, with a particular focus on private equity investment. He was a seed investor of Kidswant, a Chinese-startup that has now become a leading maternity, baby and children’s product retailer in China with a valuation of over USD3 billion.

Dr Stanley Choi, Chairman of Head & Shoulders Financial Group said: “It is my great pleasure and honour to gain a substantial ownership stake in AirAsia Group – the world’s best low cost airline and one of Asia’s biggest known brands that has successfully pivoted into digital business as well. I believe the worst period in the aviation industry’s history has now passed. I am confident that air travel will bounce back and that under Tan Sri Tony’s and Datuk Kamarudin’s leadership, and with vaccines being rolled out across the region and globally, AirAsia has a very bright future ahead. I look forward to working with everyone at AirAsia.”

Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, Executive Chairman of AirAsia Group said: “We are thrilled to welcome Dr Stanley Choi as a strategic shareholder of AirAsia Group, bringing an impressive track record and solid reputation as a business powerhouse to our Group. We are confident that he will add value to our digital business development in China through his vast experience and network with top digital players in the country.   

Dr Stanley Choi graduated with a Master’s Degree of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, United States in 1996. In 2013, he obtained a Doctoral Degree of Business Administration from the City University of Hong Kong.

Cash-Strapped El Al Israel Airlines Raises $148 Million

September 17, 2020 /

TEL AVIV, Sept 16 (Reuters) – Cash-strapped El Al Israel Airlines raised $148 million in a government-mandated share offering on Wednesday that will enable it to receive a state bailout package.

In a regulatory filing in Tel Aviv, Israel’s flag carrier said it sold 753.35 million new shares at 0.671 shekels ($0.1963) each.

Its stock earlier had closed 5.6% higher at 0.774 shekel.

Demand reached 654 million shekels while El Al accepted 505 million shekels ($148 million) worth.

El Al did not give further details of the offering which took the total number of shares outstanding to above 1.2 million.

But Israeli media reported that Eli Rozenberg had obtained a controlling stake via the offering, with 44.9% of the airline’s shares. He is the son of American businessman Kenny Rozenberg, CEO of New York-based nursing home chain Centers Health Care.

Rozenberg in July had offered to funnel $75 million into the airline in return for a 44.99% stake.

An El Al spokesman said he could not immediately confirm the reports about Rozenberg’s bid.

Newspapers said the state’s overall stake would now be as much as 15.5%, while the current controlling shareholder – Knafaim Holdings – would see its stake fall to about 15%.

Israel’s Finance Ministry said it paid $34 million for its shares and that although it pledged a $150 million safety net, it was barely needed.

“The results of the offering express investors’ trust in the company’s business plan and in state aid,” it said in a statement.

El Al has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak and the government has for months offered to intervene to help it avoid bankruptcy.

That has included mandating a share offering and steep spending reductions to receive a $250 million loan that will be 75% backed by the government and used partly to pay back customers whose flights were cancelled.

The airline has reported losses for two years running, racked up debt to renew its fleet, and suspended flights when Israel closed its borders and furloughed most of its employees.

($1 = 3.4185 shekels) (Reporting by Rami Ayyub and Steven Scheer; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

Virgin Atlantic Airline Files for US Bankruptcy Protection

August 6, 2020 /

NEW YORK — Virgin Atlantic, the airline founded by British businessman Richard Branson, filed Tuesday for protection in U.S. bankruptcy court as it tries to survive the virus pandemic that is hammering the airline industry.

The airline made the Chapter 15 filing in U.S. federal bankruptcy court in New York after a proceeding in the United Kingdom.

A spokeswoman for Virgin Atlantic said the bankruptcy filing is part of a court process in the United Kingdom to carry out a restructuring plan that the airline announced last month. The process is supported by a majority of the airline’s creditors, and the company hopes to emerge from the process in September, she said.

Click the link below for the full story!

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/virgin-atlantic-airline-bankruptcy-protection

Avianca Files for Bankruptcy Protection

May 11, 2020 /

(Reuters) – Avianca Holdings, Latin America’s second-largest airline, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, after failing to meet a bond payment deadline, while its pleas for coronavirus aid from Colombia’s government have so far been unsuccessful.

If it fails to come out of bankruptcy, Bogota-based Avianca would be one of the first major carriers worldwide to go under as a result of the pandemic, which has crippled world travel.

Avianca has not flown a regularly scheduled passenger flight since late March and most of its 20,000 employees have gone without pay through the crisis.

“Avianca is facing the most challenging crisis in our 100-year history,” Avianca Chief Executive Anko van der Werff said in a news release.

While Avianca was already weak before the coronavirus outbreak, its bankruptcy filing highlights the challenges for airlines that cannot count on state rescues or on such rescues coming fast enough. Avianca is still hoping for a government bailout.

“This isn’t a surprise at all,” said Juan David Ballen, chief economist at Casa de Bolsa brokerage in Bogota. “The company was heavily indebted despite the fact it tried to restructure its debt last year.”

Avianca, the second-oldest continually operating airline in the world after KLM, had $7.3 billion in debts in 2019. The airline filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York and said it would continue operations while it restructured its debts.

The Colombian Association of Civil Aviators (ACDAC), a union representing many Avianca employees, said it supported the move.

Avianca already went through bankruptcy in the early 2000s, from which it was rescued by a Bolivian-born oil businessman, German Efromovich.

Efromovich grew Avianca aggressively but also saddled the carrier with significant debt until he was ousted from the airline last year in a boardroom coup led by United Airlines Holdings Inc. He still owns a majority stake in the carrier.

United stands to lose up to $700 million in loans related to Avianca.

Efromovich told Reuters on Sunday that he disagreed with the decision to file for bankruptcy and that he was not involved in making it.

Click the link below to read the full story!

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/colombias-avianca-airline-files-bankruptcy-174035790.html

The logo of Avianca Airlines is pictured at a counter following the cancellation of an Avianca flight to San Salvador due to coronavirus fears in Mexico City

Former Garuda Indonesia CEO Jailed for Eight Years for Bribery

May 8, 2020 /

AKARTA (Reuters) – An Indonesian court on Friday jailed Emirsyah Satar, a former chief executive of Garuda Indonesia, for bribery and money laundering related to procurement of planes and engines from Airbus and Rolls-Royce, his laywer said.

Satar’s lawyer Luhut Pangaribuan said his client had been given an eight-year sentence and fined S$2 million ($1.4 million) by the country’s corruption court.

Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) had indicted Satar, CEO of Garuda from 2005 to 2014, over payments from a businessman via a third party for the procurement by Garuda Indonesia of Roll-Royce Trent 700 engines and Airbus A320 and A330 planes.

The indictment also related to the procurement of Airbus planes for PT Citilink Indonesia, a unit of Garuda.

In 2017 Rolls-Royce agreed to pay authorities more than $800 million to settle charges after an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and Britain’s Serious Fraud Office into alleged bribery of officials in six countries in schemes that lasted more than a decade.

Airbus in February this year agreed to pay a record $4 billion in fines after reaching a plea bargain with prosecutors in Britain, France and United States over alleged bribery and corruption stretching back at least 15 years.

Satar, who had previously denied wrongdoing, will decide next week whether to appeal against his sentence, said Pangaribuan.

($1 = 1.4139 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting by Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by David Goodman)

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