NASSAU, Bahamas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kingsland Holdings Limited (“Kingsland”), minority shareholder of Avianca Holdings S.A. (“Avianca”), today announced that it has formally requested that Avianca convene an extraordinary meeting of shareholders to vote to appoint an independent auditor to examine numerous related party transactions that Avianca has entered into with its controlling shareholder, Synergy Aerospace Corporation (“Synergy”), and other entities affiliated with Synergy and Germán Efromovich. Under Avianca’s articles of association, Avianca must call the extraordinary shareholders meeting within the next ten days.
In light of the many related party transactions that Mr. Efromovich has caused, and is continuing to cause, Avianca to enter into with his affiliates, and the apparent one-sided nature of such transactions that favor Synergy at the expense of Avianca’s other shareholders, Mr. Roberto Kriete, Kingsland’s representative on Avianca’s board of directors, has been requesting for several months that Avianca retain an independent auditor to review such transactions. To date, Synergy has caused Avianca to deny these requests, leaving Kingsland no choice but to take all actions necessary to protect the interests of Avianca’s minority shareholders.
In the event that, at the extraordinary shareholders meeting, Synergy uses its controlling position in Avianca’s voting shares to again deny an impartial review of its related party transactions with Avianca, Kingsland intends to request that a civil court in Panama appoint independent auditors to review such transactions pursuant to Article 425 of the Commercial Code of Panama.
On February 28, 2017, Kingsland also filed a lawsuit in New York State Court challenging Synergy’s and Mr. Efromovich’s conduct with respect to Avianca.