Colombian airline Avianca has filed a counter lawsuit in New York against Kingsland Holdings, which holds a 22% voting stake in the airline, for allegedly leaking boardroom secrets to obstruct the negotiations with United Airlines regarded a proposed alliance, reports the Financial Times. Kingsland was the first to file a lawsuit three weeks ago claiming the alliance with United was a “sweetheart deal” that ignored better offers from other airlines and instead seeks to “shore up [Efromovich’s] other financially strapped business concerns”.
Avianca said in a statement on March 27 that “Kingsland’s legal manoeuvres are a heavy-handed attempt to obtain greater rights in the courtroom than it previously negotiated for and agreed to in the parties’ shareholder agreement”.