No plan by AMCON to liquidate Aero Contractors —Sanusi

The Federal Government debt recovery agency, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria’s (AMCON) plan for Aero Contractors Is to keep the domestic airline as a going concern and not to liquidate it.

This was the position of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the airline, Captain Ado Sanusi while speaking with some journalists at the  Lagos airport.

Sanusi who said that despite the challenges of the past few years, the current management at Aero Contractors has stabilised the airline and turned its fortunes around, added that AMCON never planned to invest in the airline to later sell it, rather keep it as a going concern, called on AMCON to make its plan known to the public.

AMCON presently has a 60 per cent stake in Aero Contractors which happens to be

one of the two airlines under its receivership, while other airline is Arik Air, which it took over in 2017.

Stressing the need for fund by the management to keep the airline in the air, Sanusi explained that as an airline under receivership, that it could not access funds, while it could also not make major decisions on investment.

“But from what I can see from the body language of AMCON, it is that they want to keep the company as a going concern. I don’t think they want to invest in the company to make it good so that they can sell it. And I don’t think they want to liquidate the company.

“So, they want to keep it the way it is and sustain it to grow. That is my understanding. And I may be wrong, but that is my understanding of what AMCON is trying to do with the company. Yes, of course, they have a stake as of the books, they have 60 per cent stake in the airline.

“But for an airline to survive it must have a vision, it must have a plan, it must know what it’s doing. So, that is why it will encourage our growth and it will enhance our strategy to position the airline in a very good way because if certain fundamentals are not taken care of, we can’t keep it as a going concern.”

Lamenting that the management could not make strategic long-term planning and decisions on how to reposition the airline without adequate funds, Sanusi appealed

to AMCON to take a decision in good and short time so that the management could strategise whether the airline was going to be a regional, domestic airline or an international airline.