SAS Group, the holding company of SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK, Copenhagen Kastrup), delisted from the Scandinavian stock exchanges Nasdaq Stockholm, Nasdaq Copenhagen, and Oslo Børs on August 14 ahead of its expected emergence from restructuring at the end of the month.

In a statement, the group marked August 13 as the last day of trading for its existing common shares on all three bourses and the last day of trading of its listed commercial hybrid bonds at Nasdaq Stockholm. Conversions of the common shares between the securities' depositary systems in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden were no longer possible by August 12.

The distribution record date for holders of SAS Group's (legal name SAS AB) listed commercial hybrid bonds is August 15. This date was set based on an agreement with Intertrust AB, the bond agent, stipulating that the record date would be two business days after the bonds' final trading day in Stockholm.

The delisting is part of the company's reorganisation in Sweden, which, in turn, is a condition for its exiting Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States. Stockholm District Court approved the Swedish reorganisation plan on July 19, and the decision came into legal force on August 9 following a mandatory three-week appeal period.

As outlined in that plan, the changes to SAS Group's capital structure will be formally registered with the Swedish Companies Registration Office (Bolagsverket). This will include cancelling existing common shares from the shareholder registers at Euroclear Sweden, Euronext Securities Copenhagen, and Euroclear Securities Oslo and redeeming and cancelling commercial hybrid bonds. The group said that these actions would take place after the company emerges from the restructuring process.

SAS Group's restructuring plan has already been approved by the European Union's competition watchdog, the European Commission, and the US Bankruptcy Court in New York. The airline sought voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2022 to accelerate its business transformation strategy.

As ch-aviation previously reported, the restructuring plan includes significant changes to the company's capital structure:

  • the issuance of new shares - new unlisted shares will be issued to a consortium of new owners, including Castlelake, Air France-KLM, Lind Invest ApS, the Danish state, and certain general unsecured creditors. This will result in a share capital increase of up to USD550 million;
  • redemption and cancellation - all existing common shares will be redeemed and cancelled without compensation to shareholders, reducing share capital equivalent to SEK8.6 billion kroner (USD820 million);
  • a bonus issue - to be executed without issuing new shares, increasing the share capital by SEK4.5 billion (USD418 million);
  • the new owners will invest a further USD725 million in exchange for new secured convertible debt.