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At a quarter past nine on Tuesday morning, the meeting room was opened at the SAS head office in Frösundavik in Solna. Shareholders have gathered for an extraordinary general meeting, probably one of the most important for the airline.
Shortly after 11 a.m., it became clear that the rescue package had received unanimous approval from shareholders.
– It is a great pleasure that we have received support for the much needed recapitalization of SAS. Now we can continue to build on that and look a little more confidently than getting through this crisis and coming back as an important part of the Scandinavian infrastructure, says Rickard Gustafson.
How important was this to SAS?
– I want to be honest, this was crucial for us. I have tried to be transparent with this throughout the crisis, we will not get through it without help to reset our liquidity and equity ratio.
Photo: Erik Ardelius
What the owners would decide it was the so-called recapitalization plan, a scheme with several new issues and the conversion of bonds into shares that will give SAS the strength to recover from the crown crisis and survive the next few years.
Both the Swedish state and the Danish state had already been open in anticipation that they would approve the proposal. Now that it has also received a formal yes from the entire group of shareholders, it is clear that state ownership will grow during the fall.
Exactly how much the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Ibrahim Baylan (S), does not want to speculate when DN meets with him outside the General Meeting.
– We will see how it turns out, it depends on how many people participate (in the topics, keep in mind). But I think we can say that it is increasing and it depends only on one thing: that aviation is important for our infrastructure and that we are in this pandemic, says Ibrahim Baylan.
The government has previously stated multiple times that the state should not long-term ownership of SAS, and the Riksdag has given the government a mandate to sell shares of the airline. But now ownership increases.
If this affects the long-term vision of the state as owner of SAS, the Minister of Commerce and Industry does not want to respond.
– In these times, it is mainly a theoretical discussion. The picture both in Europe and globally is that states, either as owners or as a state, make capital injections or loans large enough to have an aviation infrastructure, says Ibrahim Baylan and continues:
– Once we overcome this pandemic, we must also have a new discussion. The reason I don’t want to speculate is that we don’t even know today what this industry or infrastructure will be like after the pandemic.
Photograph: VILHELM STOKSTAD / TT, VILHELM STOKSTAD / TT
A condition for That the government would go along with the whole plan was for SAS to commit to huge savings and, in part, to high weather requirements.
In a first step, the company will reduce its net carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent by 2025 (from 2005) instead of until 2030, which was the goal previously. Such a reduction corresponds to almost all SAS trips within Scandinavia last year.
Ibrahim Baylan believes it is not only good from a climate perspective, but also for SAS profitability.
– When you take these steps, you will also strengthen SAS competitiveness in the world of aviation, he says.
If the climatic requirements are associated with any kind of consequence if the company doesn’t see them, it doesn’t seem clear yet.
– I don’t want to speculate on that. We are in a situation where the General Shareholders’ Meeting has unanimously supported the recapitalization plan and I am confident that management will do everything possible to achieve both the economic goals and the climate ambitions they have.
But aren’t there any concrete consequences if they don’t reach the goal?
– We will have a close dialogue and we will continue this work. I am convinced, not only for climatic reasons, that in the long term it is not possible to conduct aviation operations but also to be able to talk about how to be more sustainable, says Ibrahim Baylan.
