ANA Holding’s takeover of freighter operator Nippon Cargo Airlines has been pushed back until May as the airline awaits regulatory approval.
In its latest update on the deal, ANA Holdings said the share exchange would no longer go ahead on 31 March as planned, but would instead now take place on 1 May.
The deal has been pushed back several times as the company has sought regulatory approval.
"The share exchange will be implemented subject to the approvals of the relevant authorities," ANA Holdings said.
"Taking into consideration the time to complete the review of the business combination that will result from the share exchange by the relevant authorities in China, etc., the company decided to change the effective date of the share exchange from 31 March to 1 May."
ANA first announced its plans to purchase Boeing 747-8 freighter operator NCA from the NYK shipping group in March 2023 and had originally anticipated it would complete the deal on 1 October 2023.
However, the takeover date has now been pushed back five times.
In January, Japan’s Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) gave its approval for the deal after initially rejecting the proposed takeover because of concerns it would restrict competition on services from Japan to the Chicago area and the Los Angeles area.
To appease the regulator, the two companies agreed that they would provide a block space agreement (BSA) to rival freighter carrier Polar Air Cargo and appoint a lawyer and an economist to monitor the agreement.
Since then, it has been announced that Polar Air Cargo will cease to exist, but Air Cargo News understands the BSA arrangement has been transferred over to Atlas Air - one of the joint venture (JV) owners of Polar.
NCA is currently owned by shipping group NYK, which decided to sell NCA to ANA due to the ongoing costs of running the cargo airline.
NCA currently operates a fleet of eight 747-8 freighter aircraft and owns five 747-400 freighters that are operated by ASL and Atlas Air.
ANA said at the time the deal was announced that the takeover would dramatically enhance its international air cargo network and products and services based in Japan.
All Nippon Airways operates six Boeing 767 freighters and two Boeing 777 freighters.
It is understood the two airlines would continue to operate on separate operating certificates.
