Mexican Investor Group, Pilots' Union Buy Mexicana After Bankruptcy Filing
Nuevo Grupo Aeronautico SA, the holding company for airline Compania Mexicana de Aviacion, was purchased yesterday by a group of Mexican investors and the country’s pilots’ union, according to a member of the investment group and a union leader.
Tenedora K, which was formed in order to purchase Mexicana, bought 95 percent of the airline’s shares, union secretary general Fernando Perfecto said yesterday. The pilots’ union owns 5 percent of the company, said Perfecto, who was involved in the negotiations.
Andres Rozental, president of the board of Grupo Industrial Omega SA, said in an e-mail that his company is one of the investors, and that Tenedora K owns 95 percent of Nuevo Grupo Aeronautico.
Mexicana, Mexico’s biggest airline by passengers, filed for protection from creditors in Mexico and under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code on Aug. 3 after executives said they had failed to reach cost-saving agreements with labor unions. Chapter 15 protection bars U.S. creditors from seizing planes or canceling contracts.
Perfecto said yesterday Mexicana Chief Executive Officer Manuel Borja Chico left his post on Friday, and Tenedora K named a new company director. Perfecto declined to name the new director or the price of the sale, saying this information would be announced Aug. 25.
Ticket Sales Suspended
Mexicana spokesman Adolfo Crespo declined to comment.
Private equity group Advent International Corp. helped arrange the deal, and isn’t investing in Mexicana, Perfecto said. Advent’s office in Mexico City didn’t answer calls made by Bloomberg outside of business hours to request comment.
CNN Expansion reported the sale earlier on its website and said Tenedora K’s investors also include Grupo Arizan SA. Grupo Arizan didn’t return a call seeking comment.
Grupo Posadas SAB, Mexico’s largest hotel operator, said yesterday it had sold its 30 percent stake in Nuevo Grupo Aeronautico. It said the stake was sold for a “symbolic” value and the transaction was already written off by the company in December 2008.
Mexicana was ordered on Aug. 18 by a bankruptcy judge to resolve a dispute with U.S. airports and pay fuel, food and other charges within a week to keep U.S. creditors at bay. International airports in Denver, Dallas, Miami and Sacramento, California, sought court permission to file claims against Mexicana if they don’t get “timely” payment of passenger facility charges.
The airline has suspended new ticket sales after its bankruptcy filing, Mexicana’s primary lender, Grupo Financiero Banorte SAB’s Banco Mercantil Del Norte unit, has said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jens Erik Gould in Mexico City at jgould9@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page