Rescue deal collapses for British airline Silverjet: administrators

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — A takeover deal to rescue small British business-class airline Silverjet has collapsed, resulting in the loss of 300 jobs, administrators said Friday.

Kingplace, an Ireland-based company managed by Heritage Cie SA, a Geneva-based investment firm, had agreed Wednesday to buy Silverjet for an undisclosed price.

"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," administrators Begbies Traynor said in a statement on Friday, when the Swiss deal was due to complete.

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

The failed...