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| Business |
| SAA disputes bid claim |
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by
Ephraim Munthali, 27 May 2003
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18:01:02
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South Africa Airways (SAA), who last month had their joint bid with Crown Aviation to take over Air Malawi rejected by the Privatisation Commission (PC), yesterday denied having submitted any bid to the commission—one month after the announcement was made.
“SAA wishes to point out that SAA never submitted a bid for equity in Air Malawi. Our involvement was only as far as acting as technical supporters to Crown Aviation’s submission,” said SAA corporate communications executive manager Rich Mkhondo in a press release.
Mkhondo said at no stage did his airline “actively participate” in the bid apart from assisting Crown Aviation, a Malawian-based consortium, “with their technical submission.”
When contacted for comment on Tuesday, PC Information, Communication and Education Manager Susan Banda said it was true that SAA’s interest in Air Malawi was not to be an equity partner but rather a strategic one.
She, however, said as far as the commission was concerned, the bid that they received, evaluated and rejected came from a consortium of Crown Aviation and SAA.
“It came to us as Crown Aviation and SAA bid. As SAA they didn’t, but as a consortium with Crown Aviation, they did submit the bid,” said Banda.
But Mkhondo said: “Of course, after Air Malawi released an information memorandum, SAA participated in the due diligence phase of the privatisation process. Closer to the bid submission, SAA’s leadership took a decision not to submit the bid and take up equity in Air Malawi.”
Announcing the rejection of the bid for Air Malawi in April this year, PC executive director Maziko Sauti-Phiri said: “The technical evaluation of the bid received from the Crown Aviation/SAA Consortium has now been completed. The Commission has approved that the bid should be withdrawn from further consideration.”
Sauti-Phiri explained that the Commission could not consider the Consortium because SAA could not be persuaded to accept equity obligations in Air Malawi, preferring to offer technical services to Crown Aviation at a fee.
The privatisation of Air Malawi has since been temporarily suspended with recommendations that government should come up with a plan to keep the flag carrier in the air.
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