(Reuters) – The Scandinavian airline SAS announced on Saturday that it had reached an agreement with the consortium formed by Air France-KLM, Lind Invest, the Castlelake investment fund and the Danish state, for aid in the restructuring of a amounting to 13.2 billion Swedish crowns (1.13 billion euros).
The agreement includes Castlelake providing SAS with a loan to replace financing previously provided by the American private equity group Apollo, the airline said.
The consortium increased its investment proposal by $25.26 million.
SAS said in October that Castlelake would take a stake of around 32%, Air France-KLM will hold around 20%, Lind Invest 8.6% and the Danish state around 26%.
The airline’s credit agreement with Castlelake will be used to refinance its loans, increase its liquidity and support its exit from the voluntary restructuring process, SAS said in a statement.
Air France has confirmed the increase in funding for restructuring aid.
Scandinavia’s largest carrier filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection in mid-2022, after struggling for years with high costs and weak customer demand due to the pandemic.
(Reporting Gursimran Kaur; French version Camille Raynaud)
Copyright © 2023 Thomson Reuters