Further to the press comment made by the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper (“EasyJet’s chairman quits after Stelios rows”, Section 3: Business, Page 1), Five Forty Aviation Ltd confirms that it has instructed its lawyers to recover an acknowledged debt of USD6.8million from Lonrho Aviation Ltd.
In June 2013, Lonrho Aviation was acquired by Stelios Haji-Ioannou-affiliated British investment firm Rubicon, the overseers of fastjet.
"On 9 January 2013, lawyers representing Five Forty Aviation Ltd wrote to Lonrho Aviation Ltd to recover $6,783,551.67 for the acknowledged debt owed to the Company. The debt relates primarily to the financial support given to Fly540 Tanzania as well as branches in Angola, Ghana and elsewhere operated by Lonrho Aviation Ltd."
Source [aviator.aero]
This debt does not relate to monies owed to individuals or any executive of Five Forty Aviation Ltd. Lonrho Aviation Ltd acknowledged this debt in a letter, dated 22 March 2012, to PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd.
Earlier today, Fastjet rejected a report that appeared in British paper, The Telegraph, alleging it had failed to honour a deal to
repay USD6.78million of debts that Donald Smith, who set up Fly540
in 2005, guaranteed with Chase Bank in
Kenya.