A THIRD legal opinion about the security offered by a ‘golden share’ put enough doubt in the minds of Treasury’s board to make it unanimously decide to scrap the Aurigny deal, its minister has confirmed.

Deputy Charles Parkinson (pictured) yesterday spoke of the circumstances that led to his department pulling out of the sale.

He also defended the decision to pursue the proposal during the last two months, saying it was part of the department’s mandate to ‘periodically review whether to continue to own Aurigny is in the States’ best interests’.

‘Before the deal in principle was announced we had taken advice from two sets of lawyers and felt fairly confident at that stage that it [golden share] would secure the slots,’ he said. ‘In the due diligence process we took advice from another lawyer and, as with a lot of cases, lawyers have differing views. Based on the advice we had to make a decision and felt that, in the event of rapid insolvency, there was a risk that the slots could be lost.’

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