Jean-François Carenco, the Minister Delegate to Overseas, is responsible for convincing the Regional Council of Reunion to support a merger between the Reunion and Corsair company, not rejected local elected officials.
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Jean-François Carenco, the new Minister Delegate to Overseas, has just been entrusted with a delicate mission: to find an agreement with the meeting on the future of Air Austral. The Reunionese airline, whose tense financial situation has been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has been brought to arm for months by the state and the region. The European Commission, which, at first, had asked France to notify it a rescue plan before the end of June, is impatient. But the meeting supposed to close the file, which was held the week of July 18 at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, ended with an observation of failure.
During this meeting, the Bercy teams presented a plan concocted under the aegis of the CIRI (Interministerial Committee for Industrial Restructuring), passing by a rapprochement between Air Austral and Corsair, its cousin of the Antilles. This assembly, according to our information, consists in placing the two companies under a common holding company in which 120 million euros of money costs would be injected: 55 million euros in Reunion capital, 30 million from West Indian investors and, finally , 35 million brought by Equerre Capital Partners, the “redeployment” fund created by Patrick Puy and Pascal Lebard- The first is a veteran of business restructuring, the second, investment specialist.
The fund would be at the helm, the state providing support by abandoning 320 million euros in claims mainly on Air Austral. “We are at work. The discussions continue between the French State, the Commission and the stakeholders in the file,” we are limited to indicating to Bercy. 2> “Economic patriotism”
The Reunion region, the main shareholder of the company through the SEMATRA mixed economy company, does not want this scheme. “We have strong reservations,” recognizes a relative of the local authority, which wishes to remain anonymous, because the discussions are confidential. Huguette Bello, the president (various left) of the regional council, intends to keep hands on the third local private employer (950 jobs), key actor of the opening of the island. She had also called upon “economic patriotism” in order to bail out Air Austral.
It had been heard. The regional deliberative assembly had approved, on June 28, a rescue plan for the carrier, with 55 million euros in contributions emanating from the SEMATRA and local investors led by the CEO of a group of private clinics, Michel Deleflie, subject to the abandonment of claims made by the State. For the elected officials of the meeting, there is no reason to add Corsair in the loop.
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