Kingsland Holdings said it has filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to halt an alliance between Avianca Holdings and United Continental Holdings.
The holding company, which holds 22% of the Colombian airline, said it was “seeking injunctive relief to prevent the cabal of insiders that controls Avianca… from proceeding with their unlawful attempt to ram through the egregiously one-sided United transaction in order to divert hundreds of millions of dollars to themselves in violation of their fiduciary and contractual duties.”
Avianca said a hearing in New York has been scheduled for March 28.
The injunction comes after Kingsland last month filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court against Avianca’s controlling shareholders, German Efromovich, Jose Efromovich and their Synergy Group Corp. Kingsland also named United as a defendant.
Avianca said last month that the alliance between the pair of airlines will happen, despite the lawsuit. Efromovich called the lawsuit “extortion,” based on “greed and ego.”
United had prepared to loan $800m to Synergy as part of the agreement, but Avianca said the financing terms were “pending negotiation.”
Kingsland, owned by the Kriete family, merged the Central American airline Taca with Avianca in 2010.