Sunday, October 08, 2017

Boeing helped finance bailout of Monarch Airlines in 2016: Financial Times

(Reuters) - Boeing Co. had pumped in more than 100 million pounds ($130 million) into Britain’s now defunct Monarch Airlines, the Financial Times reported.

The capital infusion, through Monarch’s offshore holding company Petrol Jersey, was carried out in several tranches between October 2016 and March this year, the Financial Times said. 

The airline’s owner Greybull refused to comment on the details of the financing, saying that they were “commercially confidential”, Financial Times added. It denied that there had been anything secretive about the transaction.

“As a regulated body, all financing arrangements provided to Monarch were reviewed and approved by relevant authorities,” Greybull told the newspaper.

The Financial Times said Boeing had refused to comment.

Reuters could not immediately reach Greybull Capital and Boeing for comment outside regular business hours.

Last year, Monarch secured a 165 million pound lifeline from Greybull, enabling the airline to renew a key operating license and fund new aircraft.

The equity investment had been agreed only hours before its operating license was due to expire, allowing the airline, which sells flights and package holidays to tourist destinations, to keep flying. 

The 48-year-old airline had said that the investment would fund the replacement of its Airbus jets with more fuel-efficient Boeing 737 MAX-8 aircraft between 2018 and 2021.

The low-cost carrier, which collapsed last week, is the largest British airline to go bust affecting nearly 900,000 passengers in total. 

Original article can be found here ➤ http://www.reuters.com

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