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GAETAN BALLY
Swissport is now owned by an international investment group, as the company announced on Monday. Six British and American private equity firms intervened in the breach of the Chinese HNA, which was in a financial situation. The transaction was announced in the summer.
Thanks to new investors, Swissport’s debt is being reduced by 1.9 billion euros. Upon completion of the restructuring, Swissport would also have funds of around 500 million euros, it is said. Before that, the group complained under a mountain of debt of more than 2.1 billion euros, while the aviation crisis hit the company hard.
The new owners have elected Christoph Müller to the Swissport board of directors. Müller recalls a career in the airline industry, most recently as CEO of Malaysia Airlines. In previous years he was also in charge of Aer Lingus and the former Belgian airline Sabena.
But first of all, Müller has to act as Swissport’s interim CEO from 2021. It has long been known that CEO Eric Born will leave the company at the end of 2020 after five and a half years.
The search for a new CEO is well under way, Swissport explained. Until a permanent CEO is appointed, David Siegel, a veteran of the aviation industry, will lead Swissport’s Board of Directors on an interim basis.
Since the collapse of Swissair, Swissport has changed hands several times. In February 2002, the British investment firm Candover bought Swissport for around 580 million Swiss francs. The British sold the company to Spain’s Ferrovial three years later for 520 million euros.
Five years later, Ferrovial sold the groundhandling company for 900 million Swiss francs to the French investment company PAI Partners. In July 2015, Swissport traded HNA for 273 billion Swiss francs.
