Court approves $700 million DIP financing for SAS

SAS confirmed that the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved SAS’ debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing credit agreement for $700 million with funds managed by Apollo Global Management.

The airline noted that the terms of the DIP financing credit agreement are “substantially similar” to the terms previously announced by SAS on August 14, 2022. The Court has indicated that it will enter an order approving the DIP financing shortly.

SAS announced on August 14, 2022, that it entered into a DIP financing credit agreement for $700 million with Apollo, subject to Court approval.

SAS stated that the DIP financing, along with cash generated from the company’s ongoing operations, will enable the company to continue meeting its obligations throughout the Chapter 11 process.

“With the Court’s approval of our DIP financing, we are making important progress in our chapter 11 process,” said Anko van der Werff, President and Chief Executive Officer of SAS. “The DIP financing agreement with Apollo followed an extensive and competitive process that we conducted to achieve the best financing outcome for SAS, and we are pleased that the Court has approved it. I’d like to thank our employees for their hard work and dedication, as well as our business partners for their support as we continue moving through this process. We continue to make progress with the SAS FORWARD plan, and our work to build a competitive and even better airline for our customers.”

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is serving as global legal counsel and Mannheimer Swartling Advokatbyrå is serving as Swedish legal counsel to SAS. Seabury Securities and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken are serving as investment bankers, Seabury is also serving as restructuring advisor, and FTI Consulting is serving as financial advisor to SAS.

PJT Partners is acting as financial advisor to Apollo. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is acting as legal counsel to Apollo. Watson Farley & Williams is acting as special aviation counsel to Apollo.