It's a 6 month bridging loan which, apparently meets the EU criteria. The EU approved the loan a month ago. https://condor-newsroom.condor.com/e...-government-1/
If that's on any of the O/T political threads then I wouldn't know as I don't read them. I only opened this one because there was a typo in the Subject line which I corrected. Maybe I should have just deleted it as it's a bit random to have such a thread on a football message board. At least the ones about the General Election/Brexit would seem to be on more pertinent subjects than this one.
“Condor is a profitable company and therefore our decision was based on economic factors, not on political criteria,” said Peter Altmaier, adding that the decision meant many of the firm’s roughly 5,000 workers would be able to keep their jobs.
Not profitable enough however to avoid being bailed out
It’s a £336M bridging loan tykey to get them up and operating and get them through the quiet period of winter.
Condor don’t have any cash, if they did Thomas Cook wouldn’t have gone under the way they did.
They seem to think it’s a going concern and bookings are increasing for next year, they’re also looking for new owners.
German tax payers will be funding the loan.
Thomas Cook wanted a £150M loan to save it’s UK operation.
From the EU website
"The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, Germany's plans to grant a temporary €380 million loan to charter airline Condor. The measure will contribute to ensuring the orderly continuation of air transport services and avoid disruptions for passengers, without unduly distorting competition in the Single Market.
On 25 September 2019, Germany notified the Commission of its intention to grant, via the German public development bank KfW, a €380 million rescue loan to Condor. The airline faces an acute liquidity shortage following the entry into liquidation of its parent company, the Thomas Cook Group. Furthermore, Condor had to write off significant claims against other Thomas Cook Group companies, which Condor will no longer be able to collect.
The Commission's Guidelines on rescue and restructuring aid allow Member States to support companies in difficulties, provided, in particular, that the public support measures are limited in time and scope and contribute to an objective of common interest. Rescue aid can be granted for maximum six months to give a company time to work out solutions in an emergency situation.
In the present case, the Commission has taken the following elements into account:
the loan will be paid out in instalments under stringent conditions. In particular, Condor has to demonstrate its liquidity needs on a weekly basis and new instalments will only be paid when all existing liquidity has been used; and
Germany committed to ensure that, after six months, the loan will either be fully repaid, or Condor will carry out a comprehensive restructuring in order to return to viability in the long-term. Such possible restructuring would be subject to the Commission's assessment and approval.
The Commission found that the measure will help ensure the orderly continuation of flight services, in the interest of air passengers. At the same time, the strict conditions attached to the loan and its duration limited to six months will reduce the distortion of competition potentially triggered by the State support to a minimum.
The Commission therefore concluded that the measure is compatible with EU State aid rules
Thomas Cook wanted the government to give them a £200m loan, to exerrt pressure upon other lenders (for which read, RBS) to participate in loaning them a further £900 million and to underwrite those further loans.
The government was right to say no. Thomas Cook was simply not viable. It was sitting on a massive and rapidly growing £1.7bn of debt. Accepting the company's request would have simply created an open ended commitment to prop up a lame duck that had no prospect of turning it's fortunes around. It would also have set a precedent for other poorly run and non-viable companies in the future.
Thomas Cook got into trouble by expanding far too rapidly and aggressively and not adapting to changing market demands.