Fastjet adds £4 million in funding

Fastjet Airbus A319. Courtesy, Fastjet

African budget carrier FastJet has raised £4 million ($6.2 million) in fresh working capital, sourced from current and new investors and by drawing down on a credit facility.

A FastJet spokeswoman said the funds would be “deployed in fulfillment of Fastjet’s stated growth strategy,” without giving any further information.

However, in an earlier statement the airline indicated that the extra working capital would be used to support its South African expansion. FastJet has already struck a deal toacquire South African carrier 1time, which went into liquidation in November and it is also pursuing a joint venture with Kenyan carrier Jetlink Express.

When asked whether the funds were for the 1time deal, the spokeswoman replied: “Discussions between Fastjet and relevant authorities regarding 1time are on-going. There’s nothing further to say on this at the moment.”

Returning to the details of the funding, FastJet said it has inked “legally bonding contracts” for £3.5 million of the £4 million total, prompting it to issue 155.6 million new shares. “Once all the funds have been cleared, the placing will be completed and the company will make an announcement of the issue of the placing shares and their date of admission to [London Stock Exchange] Alternative Investment Market (AIM),” FastJet said in a statement.

The remaining £528,125 of the capital boost will come from an existing financing facility with Darwin Strategic, part of the Henderson Global Investors Volantis Fund. Under this transaction FastJet will issue Darwin with 16.3 million shares. This block of shares is expected to begin trading on AIM on Feb. 15.

Following the fund raising exercise, FastJet will have a total of 2,072,416,561 ordinary shares with voting rights.

FastJet is currently locked in a hostile dispute with Five Forty Aviation, which dates back to acquisitions made to create FastJet.

atwonline.com