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Sunday, November 11, 2012

■ MOROCCO: Regional Air Lines gets $7.3million cash injection to settle debts.

Following an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) held on 24 October 2012, the board of Moroccan carrier Regional Air Lines(FN), inactive for roughly 3 years, has received a cash injection of USD7.36million (MAD64million) to help settle its total accumulated losses amounting to USD23.74million (MAD206.5million).


A Regional Air Lines ATR42
A Regional Air Lines ATR42
The call to restructure the defunct carrier's balance sheet was made by shareholders Holmarcom (Group Bensalah) and FinanceCom (Group Benjellou). The carrier's capital was reduced from USD22.07million (MAD192million) to USD0.14million(MAD1.2million) via the cancellation of 1,908,000 shares before a recapitalization of USD7.31million (MAD63.6million).

Founded in 1996 with its first flight in July 1997, Regional Air Lines was Morocco's first private airline following the deregulation of the industry.

In 2009, the company partnered Air Arabia by providing the bulk of its assets, including airline licenses, for LCC Air Arabia Maroc (3O) in return for a 40% stake in it. Falah Invest Holdings completed the Morrocan controlling share with an 11% stake whilst the rest of the start up capital was provided by Bahrain's Ithmar Bank Group (20%) and UAE-based LCC Air Arabia (29%) who subsequently oversaw the airline's operations.