Solenta Aviation to acquire 28% of Fastjet

South African ACMI/charter specialist Solenta Aviation will acquire a 28% stake in Fastjet and its Fastjet Zimbabwe sister carrier, reports ch-aviation.
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A disclosure to the London Stock Exchange shows that as part of the transaction, Fastjet will wet-lease three Embraer Regional Jets from Solenta over the next five years. 

Initially, the wet-leased aircraft will be ERJ-145s.  Fastjet will have the right to replace these aircraft with EMB-190s/195s or ATR72-600s, subject to a what it says is a "fair and reasonable adjustment" to the hourly rate. 

"This will give the Company the opportunity to sub-lease its current A-319s saving further costs and provide the Company with the flexibility to grow its capacity in-line with demand as existing routes develop and new routes are set up," said Fastjet. 

Fastjet will issue Solenta approximately 95.6 million new ordinary shares valued at GBP0.163 per share (or GBP15.6 million (USD19.2 million) in total) to acquire a Solenta group SPV that will own the right to enter into the three wet-leases. In return, Solenta will offer discounts to the tune of USD19.2 million on the future cost of services provided while gaining the right to nominate two directors to the Board of fastjet.

The transaction is expected to close on January 24, 2017.