The planned takeover of the vacation airline condor by the polish holding company PGL is in doubt.
According to the news magazine "der spiegel", the parent company of the airline LOT has made additional demands to the federal ministry of economics and technology prior to the conclusion of the transaction. At the same time, it became known on thursday that condor had already applied for the bridging loan of 380 million euros to be extended. Only with this money from the federal government and the state of hesse, the airline has been keeping itself in the air for months now.
With reference to negotiating circles, "der spiegel" reports that the fulfillment of the new PGL demands would be tantamount to an almost complete hedging of the investment. PGL won its bid against two financial investors and was awarded the contract on 24 september. January signed a purchase agreement that was acclaimed in poland. The undisclosed purchase sum must be paid out by 15. April, the k-uberbruckungskredit must be repaid. If no agreement was reached, PGL would be required to pay contractual penalties. However, nothing is known about the extent of this.
Condor did not wish to comment on the report. Following the bankruptcy of its british parent company thomas cook, the german vacation airline with almost 60 aircraft was placed under a protective umbrella, which is being handled by the insolvency specialist lucas flother. The protective shield plan approved by the creditors is not yet legally binding, so that the agreed takeover by PGL cannot be carried out. Condor had always stated that nothing stood in the way of the transaction on the part of the LOT parent company. PGL declined to comment in warsaw during the ongoing transaction.
The background to the doubts about the deal is the corona crisis, which is hitting airlines particularly hard. Still both LOT and condor are well occupied with bringing home the respective vacationers on behalf of the respective governments. But after that, there is a deep hole in demand: condor therefore wants to put a large part of the workforce on short-time work.
Agreements have been reached with the unions for all occupational groups, a spokeswoman explained in frankfurt on thursday. In addition, like other airlines, the company has applied for additional state aid. The exact extent of the short-time work will be determined later, said the spokeswoman. It is to be applied in all areas of the company, which employs almost 5,000 people.
The possible loan extension had previously been reported in the trade magazine "fvw". However, the hessian ministry of finance was not aware of any request for information on thursday. The loan of 380 million euros was granted by the state k-bank, with the federal government and the state of hesse acting as guarantors.