Leaked video showed an airline chairman telling employees the company was ‘bankrupt’ — and its stock plummeted to an all-time low (AVC)

Luis Galdamez/REUTERS

Avianca Holdings hit a record low Tuesday after a leaked video showed chairman Roberto Kriete telling employees the company is "bankrupt."
The company’s shares fell as much as 15% on Colombia’s stock exchange before partially recovering. The drop wiped out more than $40 million from the company’s market cap.
Avianca released a statement Tuesday saying Kriete "used the colloquial term ‘bankrupt’" and noted the company isn’t in a bankruptcy situation.
Watch Avianca trade live here.

Avianca Holdings sank to a record low Tuesday after a video leaked showing the airline’s chairman telling employees the company is "bankrupt."

The company plummeted as much as 15% on Colombia’s BVC stock exchange. The company’s shares are down about 5.7% as of 12:30 p.m. ET Tuesday.

The leaked video showed chairman Roberto Kriete making the statement while sitting next to CEO Anko van der Werff during a company meeting. Kriete was looking to motivate a return to profitability, Carlos Enrique Rodriguez, head of equity research at Bogota-based Ultraserfinco, told Bloomberg.

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The stock’s drop slashed more than $40 million from Avianca’s total value. The video was spread across social networks after markets closed Monday.

The company quickly addressed Kriete’s flub. The chairman "used the colloquial term ‘bankrupt’" in the video but Avianca isn’t in a bankruptcy situation, the airline said in a statement. The comments were "in harmony" with the company’s plan to boost efficiency through 2021, the statement added.

Avianca has one "buy" rating, no "hold" ratings, and five "sell" ratings from analysts, according to Bloomberg data. Its shares are down about 26% year-to-date.

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