Defence firm with SA roots files for bankruptcy

Defence company Paramount has filed for bankruptcy in the US after suffering defeat in a long-running business dispute. The UAE-based company, founded by Ivor Ichikowitz in SA, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday in Delaware. It listed assets of between $500m and $1bn and liabilities of between $100m and $500m in its bankruptcy petition. Paramount said the bankruptcy was intended to address an arbitration penalty it received this month following a dispute dating to 2022 with an unnamed Middle Eastern company. It said the filing involved ‘a limited number of its non-operating entities,’ won’t affect its global operations and would allow the company to pursue counterclaims. Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a company to keep operating while it works out a plan to repay creditors. Formed in SA in 1994, Paramount became Africa’s largest privately owned defence and aerospace company. It makes armoured cars, maritime patrol and escort vessels and began producing the Mwari – the first military aircraft made in SA since the 1980s – in 2022. The company is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, according to its website and bankruptcy petition. The company also listed corporate affiliates in Cyprus and Delaware.