Times Herald-Record News Article- Baltia Air Lines spokesman John Lampl said the company is now auditing Sonbird Airways' assets and liabilities to determine if it wants to proceed with the acquisition. Baltia hope to fly out of Stewart International Airport under the name USGlobal Airways.
Baltia Air Lines, the aspirational company that plans to use Stewart Airport as a hub for new international cargo and passenger service, wants to buy an already licensed carrier to speed the federal approval process to operate.
In a June 23 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Baltia reported that it had signed a non-binding letter of intent to purchase Songbird Airways for $6.2 million and had made a deposit of $1 million with an escrow agent.
Songbird, based in Coral Gables, Fla., is licensed by the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration to conduct domestic and international charter operations with up to 10 aircraft. It owns a single Boeing 737-400, a plane that was released in the 1980s and that other airlines have largely retired.
John Lampl, a Baltia spokesman, said the company is now auditing Songbird’s assets and liabilities to determine if it wants to proceed with the acquisition. Then, the DOT and FAA will have to sign off on the sale and transfer of Songbird’s certification to Baltia.
“It’s early days but it’s moving along,″ said Lampl.
Tony Koulouris, Baltia’s president, told shareholders at a May 11 meeting at Stewart that the company was considering buying another airline to fast-track its application for certification but would need $50 million to cover start-up costs regardless.
He listed London; Paris; Barcelona, Spain; Nice, France; Naples, Italy; Athens, Greece; Warsaw, Poland; Budapest, Hungary; Prague, Czechoslovakia; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Tel Aviv, Israel, as among the first destinations for the airline once it begins operations.
Songbird was originally known as Sky King, after the National Basketball Association’s Sacramento Kings, and founded to fly the team. After two bankruptcy filings in the past five years, the company was purchased by shareholders and rebranded. It announced it would consider offers in 2015.
In another SEC filing last month, Baltia said the audited financial statements for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2015, that was filed on April 14, 2016, “should no longer be relied upon.” The statements, the last ones available for the company, showed assets of $1.7 million and liabilities of $5 million.
Baltia explained that a review of its finances as part of the transition to the new management team led by Koulouris in late 2016 revealed a failure to account for payments to Logistic Air Inc. for the lease of airplane engines. It pledged to bring its financial reporting current as soon as practicable.
In the interim, Baltia and Logistic are in settlement negotiations over an $8.8 million bill.
The company also reported that shareholder voting had concluded June 9 on the two proposals that Koulouris presented May 11: changing Baltia’s name to USGlobal Airways and effecting a reverse stock split between one for 25 and one for 50.
Shareholders voting more than 5 billion shares of Baltia’s 9 billion shares of outstanding common stock approved both proposals. Baltia’s over-the-counter stock was trading at .005 cents Thursday.
At the time, Koulouris said the new name would allow the company to shed “the baggage” associated with Baltia.
The company was founded in 1989 to offer the first non-stop flights between JFK and St. Petersburg, Russia, but it had no planes and never flew anywhere. The SEC ultimately charged its former vice president for finance with running the inequivalent of an in-house brokerage to sell $26 million in unregistered common stock.
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Baltia Air Lines, the aspirational company that plans to use Stewart Airport as a hub for new international cargo and passenger service, wants to buy an already licensed carrier to speed the federal approval process to operate.
In a June 23 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Baltia reported that it had signed a non-binding letter of intent to purchase Songbird Airways for $6.2 million and had made a deposit of $1 million with an escrow agent.
Songbird, based in Coral Gables, Fla., is licensed by the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration to conduct domestic and international charter operations with up to 10 aircraft. It owns a single Boeing 737-400, a plane that was released in the 1980s and that other airlines have largely retired.
John Lampl, a Baltia spokesman, said the company is now auditing Songbird’s assets and liabilities to determine if it wants to proceed with the acquisition. Then, the DOT and FAA will have to sign off on the sale and transfer of Songbird’s certification to Baltia.
“It’s early days but it’s moving along,″ said Lampl.
Tony Koulouris, Baltia’s president, told shareholders at a May 11 meeting at Stewart that the company was considering buying another airline to fast-track its application for certification but would need $50 million to cover start-up costs regardless.
He listed London; Paris; Barcelona, Spain; Nice, France; Naples, Italy; Athens, Greece; Warsaw, Poland; Budapest, Hungary; Prague, Czechoslovakia; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Tel Aviv, Israel, as among the first destinations for the airline once it begins operations.
Songbird was originally known as Sky King, after the National Basketball Association’s Sacramento Kings, and founded to fly the team. After two bankruptcy filings in the past five years, the company was purchased by shareholders and rebranded. It announced it would consider offers in 2015.
In another SEC filing last month, Baltia said the audited financial statements for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2015, that was filed on April 14, 2016, “should no longer be relied upon.” The statements, the last ones available for the company, showed assets of $1.7 million and liabilities of $5 million.
Baltia explained that a review of its finances as part of the transition to the new management team led by Koulouris in late 2016 revealed a failure to account for payments to Logistic Air Inc. for the lease of airplane engines. It pledged to bring its financial reporting current as soon as practicable.
In the interim, Baltia and Logistic are in settlement negotiations over an $8.8 million bill.
The company also reported that shareholder voting had concluded June 9 on the two proposals that Koulouris presented May 11: changing Baltia’s name to USGlobal Airways and effecting a reverse stock split between one for 25 and one for 50.
Shareholders voting more than 5 billion shares of Baltia’s 9 billion shares of outstanding common stock approved both proposals. Baltia’s over-the-counter stock was trading at .005 cents Thursday.
At the time, Koulouris said the new name would allow the company to shed “the baggage” associated with Baltia.
The company was founded in 1989 to offer the first non-stop flights between JFK and St. Petersburg, Russia, but it had no planes and never flew anywhere. The SEC ultimately charged its former vice president for finance with running the inequivalent of an in-house brokerage to sell $26 million in unregistered common stock.
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