Airline SAS gets US court nod for $1.2 billion investment lifeline

(Reuters) -Scandinavian airline SAS said on Tuesday it received U.S. bankruptcy court approval for 13.2 billion Swedish crowns ($1.3 billion) investment agreement with a consortium of Castlelake, Air France-KLM , Lind Invest and the Danish state.

The company also received final approval for its new debtor-in-possession financing credit agreement with U.S. based Castlelake for a total of about $500 million, boosting the carrier's effort to complete its restructuring and replacing Apollo Global's funding.

Earlier in the month, the court had already approved $450 million from Castlelake.

In October, the company said Castlelake would take a stake of about 32%, while Air France-KLM's will be around 20% and the Danish state will hold about 26%, adding that total investments in the reorganized SAS would amount to $1.16 billion.

Scandinavia's biggest carrier filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States in mid-2022 after years of struggling with high costs coupled with low customer demand brought on by the pandemic.

($1 = 10.4988 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates)