British tycoon Richard Branson says he would be open to buying a stake in struggling state-owned airline South African Airways (SAA).
He was speaking at a business event in Johannesburg, hosted by Investec.
SAA has been a major drain on the South African fiscus in recent years. Finance minister Tito Mboweni said in his medium term budget policy statement speech that the government would be paying nearly R10 billion in debt for the airline, because it could not get funding from banks. SAA’s estimated losses amount to nearly R30 billion in just over a decade.
Branson, who owns Virgin Atlantic, said he would consider buying a stake in SAA if approached by the South African government. According to Business Day, Branson said: ‘It’s a good time to invest in South Africa. Now you’ve got someone leading the country who is trustworthy, you have the basis hopefully for a really positive future.’
Branson is not the only possible source of funding for SAA. In October, Bloomberg reported that the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, Genre Mariam, had said that his organisation would be interested in ‘supporting’ SAA if approached to do so by the South African government.
However, until the ideological logjam is broken within the government, we are unlikely to see anyone come to the rescue of SAA in the immediate future.