by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Greg Roumeliotis and Marie Mannes
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – U.S. private equity group Apollo is considering asking Swedish and Danish authorities for permission to take a majority stake in SAS AB, as part of the Scandinavian airline’s rescue plan, a source said. close to the file.
SAS shares jumped 14.29% on the Stockholm Stock Exchange around 09:10 GMT. European Union regulations prohibit more than 50% of the capital of a European airline from being held outside the borders of the European bloc. But given that much of Apollo’s capital comes from investors based in Europe, the US fund is hoping to get the green light for the deal, the source reports.
No final decision has been made on a possible investment, two sources said, with one adding that a deal could be done by the end of the year. Apollo and SAS declined to comment.
In July, SAS initiated a safeguard procedure in the United States to try to accelerate its restructuring, explaining that the strikes of its pilots had weakened its financial situation, already very degraded.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen, Greg Roumeliotis in New York and Marie Mannes in Stockholm, writing by Josephine Mason; Laetitia Volga, editing by Kate Entringer)
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