Court documents show Blue Islands was put up for sale
LOCAL airline Blue Islands was put up for sale last year, but it fell through after the company changed its plans.
The abandoned deal has come to light because a Swiss financial adviser, who was working for Blue Islands, lodged a case with the High Court in London, alleging that the airline still owed fees.
A claim was issued on 6 December in the Commercial Court by Barons Capital Partners SA, which offers investment banking advisory services.
In a short statement issued, a spokesman for Blue Islands said the matter had now been resolved.
‘Any dispute has been settled.’
The chairman and managing partner of Barons, Eric Kohn, was similarly succinct.
‘This matter has been settled.’
In the court papers, Barons claimed that it had been hired by Blue Islands as corporate financial adviser to help arrange the sale of its shares in March 2019.
However, Barons alleged that the airline backtracked on its plans, but failed to pay up over a breakaway clause.
Barons was paid about £51,000 and was suing for an outstanding debt of £150,000 because the airline had cut short the agreement.
Last July, rumours were circulating that Blue Islands might be for sale, and the company issued a press release strongly refuting the suggestions and giving a ‘business as usual’ message.
Tim Coates, from Blue Islands. speaking on behalf of his father, Derek, said at the time that there were no plans to sell the business and they were committed to continued success and investment in realising growth aspirations.
According to the claim by Barons, that press statement undermined ‘the objective state in the agreement of concluding the sale of all of the outstanding shares of [Blue Islands]’.
Shortly after the press release was issued, Barons revealed that it received an email from Blue Islands seeking a ‘12-month hiatus to the sale process’.
Barons believed that this hiatus effectively terminated their contract.
Court documents showed that the financial adviser alleged that the airline’s director had later admitted the press release in July was a ‘mistake’.
When Barons asked for more information, it was apparently not forthcoming.
Last year was a turbulent year for flights generally in Guernsey.
Aurigny announced that it was forecasting record losses of £7m., rising to £9.6m. this year.
Blue Islands became a Flybe franchise partner in 2016 and it operates scheduled inter-island flights and to a number of UK airports.
