Appointed by the Companies
and Intellectual Property
Commission, Les Matusan
comes with a distinguished
career of 35 years as a
turnaround strategist, having
managed business rescues
at Ellerine Furnishers,
Edcon, and Evraz Highveld.
He is facing a race
against time to restructure
SAA before the cash runs
out. National Treasury and
commercial banks have
put up another R4bn to
fund SAA.
His appointment has
received a mixed response.
Industry commentators
and economists generally
welcomed it. They
pointed out that business
rescue did not guarantee
SAA’s survival, nor the
continuance of its present
form. According to June
statistics by the Companies
and Intellectual Property
Commission, only 571 of
the 3 289 companies that
went into business rescue
in the last eight years were
substantially turned around,
meaning business rescue
could just mean an orderly
liquidation for SAA.
An uncontrolled exit of
SAA from the air transport
industry would result
in slowed or negative
economic growth warned
Aasa.
SAA’s situation may also
have an unforeseen impact
on Comair, which is to meet
Les to discuss a R1bn
settlement agreement that
it won against SAA for anticompetitive conduct dating
back 14 years, over SAA
incentives paid to travel
agents between 2001 and
2006 to divert customers to
its flights.
The practitioner
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