Monday, July 29, 2013

■ MAURITIUS: Air Mauritius holds annual AGM; re-elects board.

Air MauritiusMauritian national carrier, Air Mauritius (MK), held its Annual Meeting of shareholders at the Grand Baie International Conference Centre in Port Louis on July 25, 2013 under the chairmanship of Mr. Appalsamy (Dass) Thomas. 


During his address, Mr. Thomas focused on the future of Air Mauritius in which he highlighted the measures being taken to ensure the long-term sustainability of the business, saying that the real game-changer would be the timely re-fleeting with new generation aircraft. He also underlined the alignment of all stakeholders to the objectives of Air Mauritius, which he said was crucial to enabling change.

The CEO of Air Mauritius, Mr. Andre Viljoen, gave a presentation to the shareholders where he explained the financial situation of the company.  While the airline did post a EUR2.6million pre-tax loss for its most recent financial year, Mr Viljoen elaborated on the overall EUR25.6million improvement in the airline's financial performance for its 2012-2013 Financial Year which, he explained, was the direct result of the 7-Step Plan, designed to bring about recovery within 2 years. The seven steps are split into two phases - Recovery steps and Game Changers. The recovery steps revolve around Steps 1 - 4 with the Game Changers involving Steps 5 to 7:
  1. Network concentration and optimization, 
  2. Improvements in the commercial and revenue management functions,
  3. Relentless cash conservation and cost reduction program,
  4. Monetizing of non-core assets,
  5. New generation aircraft (more fuel efficient), 
  6. A customer service improvement project,
  7. Focus on human capital.

The effects of this Program were felt as from the 2nd quarter of financial year 2012-2013 and the improvements that followed were directly attributable to the measures initiated. Mr. Viljoen added that the company was targeting a return to profitability by the end of the current financial year – in March 2014.

During the meeting, the shareholders were provided with the opportunity to discuss and comment on the management of the affairs of the company.

The shareholders re-elected the following persons as Board Directors of Air Mauritius: 
  • Appalsamy Thomas, 
  • Andre Viljoen, 
  • Kremchand Beegoo, 
  • Dheerendra Kumar Dabee, 
  • Gerard Espitalier-Noel, 
  • Philippe Espitalier-Noel, 
  • Ramapatee Gujadhur,
  • Ali Mansoor, 
  • Dominique Patry, 
  • Raj Ringadoo, 
  • Suresh Seeballuck,
  • Aisha Timol,
  • Francois Woo Shing Hai,
  • Jean Michel Louis Rivalland
  • Rohit Nandan.