The Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Institute for the Management of State Holdings (IGEPE), Ana Isabel Senda Coanai, has called the ongoing financial restructuring of Mozambique Airlines (LAM) “very complex”.
According to her, the Mozambican flagship airline is facing several financial problems, for which it is crucial to restructure the company so that it may have greater efficiency and sustainability in the future.
Coanai also justified the complexity of LAM’s financial restructuring with the current deficit situation that led the company to opt for indebtedness with commercial banks.
The Institute for Management of State Holdings estimates at around US$200 million the amount of debt that LAM has with the banks, and it is believed that financial restructuring of the debt will ease the company’s cash flow.
Created in 1975 after the extinction of DETA, LAM was for many years a state company, under the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
In December 1998, the company was transformed into a Limited Liability Public Limited Company, adopting the name LAM, S.A.R.L.
Since then, the Mozambican State held 80 per cent of the shares of the newly formed company and the managers, technicians and workers of LAM the remaining 20 per cent of the shares. After successive appointments of directors and chairmen, in July 2018 the company’s shareholders dismissed the board of directors and appointed João Carlos Pó Jorge as managing director, a new position with increased powers to deal with the company’s crisis.
