Mozambique: New board of airline ‘has 18 months to restructure it’ – minister

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Mozambique: New board of airline ‘has 18 months to restructure it’ – minister

7:00 CAT | 02 Aug 2018

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Mozambique’s minister of transport and communications, Carlos Mesquita, said on Wednesday that the new management of national airline LAM has a year and a half to restructure the company, which is battling a serious financial crisis.

“The managing director [and his aides] has 18 months to implement a restructuring plan for the company and the ideal thing would be to shorten the deadlines for this operation,” Mesquita told journalists in Maputo.

LAM’s new managers should draft a plan that could improve the efficiency of the company’s operations, he said.

Mesquita said that the appointment last month of a new managing director, assisted by sector directors, meant the elimination of the old board of directors and executive committee, and the return to the management model of 20 years ago.

“The role of the board of directors is, essentially, to be exercised by the shareholders,” he said, in a reference above all to Mozambican state entities.

The government, through the holding company IGEPE, in July dissolved the LAM board, replacing it with a managing director. The move was formally approved at an extraordinary shareholder assembly that was convened to review the carrier’s situation, at a time when it is facing major financial problems.

The carrier is majority owned by the state, with its managers, senior staff and other employees having some shares.

LAM has on several occasions been obliged to cancel flights for lack of fuel, as suppliers cut off deliveries because of its failure to keep up with payments.

Source: Lusa