11.34 PM Thursday, 28 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:57 06:11 12:27 15:53 18:37 19:51
28 March 2024

Staff sacked as Silverjet buyout talks collapse

Published
By AP

The proposed buyout of collapsed business class airline Silverjet fell apart yesterday and its 300 employees were formally fired, the administrator said.

Irish-based Kingplace announced earlier this week that it had provisionally agreed to take over Silverjet, which suspended operations two weeks ago after running out of money.

But Nigel Atkinson and Mark Fry of Begbies Traynor, joint administrators for Silverjet, said yesterday that Kingplace was no longer in a position to proceed with a deal.

"We now understand that, as a result of the unusually complex negotiations with third parties, Kingplace is no longer in a position to acquire Silverjet as a going concern," the administrators said.

"As a consequence, we have today (yesterday) had to make the entire workforce formally redundant, in line with our legal obligations as administrator.

"We continue to negotiate the sale of Silverjet's assets for the benefit of the company's creditors and will provide an update as soon as we are able."

Silverjet suspended its service from its base at Luton Airport north of London to Newark airport in New Jersey in the United States and to Dubai on May 30.

The company reached a crisis when it failed to receive funding agreed under a deal with Viceroy Holdings, an international luxury development fund based in the UAE and the United States.