PART FOUR
The privatisation of BWIA in 1995 had failed and investors lost millions of dollars.
Conrad Aleong, a veteran airline executive who had previously warned about the privatisation pitfalls, was brought back by the Duprey board to conduct an assessment of the failed airline and make recommendations for its recovery.
After the board considered Aleong’s report, he was hired in February 1998 as the president and CEO with a clear mandate to turnaround the airline.
Aleong put together a team and under his guidance, a turnaround plan was developed.
BWIA image was rebranded with new internal and external livery, a 3D pan logo and new staff uniforms.
Aleong achieved BWIA’s first profit ever of US$9 million in 1998, US$3.6 million in 1999 and US$1.1 million in 2000.
[caption id="attachment_1150024" align="alignnone" width="768"] Francis Regis presenting the certificate of airworthiness for the first boeing 737-800 aircraft to BWIA CEO Conrad Aleong in 2000 at the Boeing factory in Seattle, USA. -[/caption]
BWIA required money to recapitalise the airline with an emphasis on re-fleeting. Without financial assistance from the government, BWIA applied in November 2000 to the Securities and Exchange Commission for approval of a prospectus covering the issue of 12 million BWIA shares at a price of $7.85 or US$1.25 in an Initial Public Offering (IPO).
By letter dated November 27, 2000, the commission issued its receipt to BWIA for the prospectus.
The Stock Exchange represented that an application was made to it later that year for the listing of BWIA’s ordinary shares on the official list of the Stock Exchange upon completion of the IPO.
The issue of 12 million shares to the public commenced on December 4, 2000, and remained open in other Caribbean jurisdictions until January 19, 2001.
BWIA’s issued share capital at the date of listing was 46,824,656 shares, of which 15.5 per cent (representing 7,279,906 shares) was taken up by the public in the IPO.
BWIA was listed on the Stock Exchange’s official list on February 6, 2001, at the issue price of $7.85.
By August 2001, BWIA had already realised a US$9 million profit and was heading for its fourth consecutive year of profit when the events of September 11, 2001 (9/11) grounded all flights in the US.
It took some time for foreign airlines to be allowed to fly into the US.
BWIA at that time operated high-yield flights to Miami, New York and Washington DC. With the resumption of flights, load factors had fallen by approximately 60 per cent.
BWIA's financial woes were compounded by the Iraq war and SARS which came soon after 9/11 and significantly affected the revenues of the airline. It continued to keep all employees on the payroll with full salaries and benefits.
Aleong’s management team had renewed the fleet replacing the aging L1011 and MD83 with seven new Boeing B737-800NG, two seven-year-old A340s and three Dash 8 300Qs.
It was a tremendous achievement as for the first time in BWIA’s history, it funded all the new aircraft acquisitio
