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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines’ parent company has sought financial help from its sole shareholder, the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, as debt restructuring talks with creditors drag on, the company said on Saturday (21 of November).
“Malaysia Aviation Group has requested financial support from our shareholder Khazanah Nasional, although the company is not in a position to comment on the amount at this time,” he said in an email to Reuters.
The group said it is still in talks for a restructuring and is aiming for a trade deal in the first week of December.
The airline could be seeking as much as $ 500 million, said Malaysia’s Edge Weekly, which first reported the news, citing unidentified sources.
Khazanah said any financing for the airline will depend on the outcome of discussions with creditors and lessors, which he said is crucial to the success of the restructuring.
Malaysia Airlines seeks to restructure after the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to cut back its operations.
The parent company had warned the leasing companies that Khazanah would stop financing the group and force it into a liquidation process if restructuring talks with the lessors were unsuccessful, Reuters reported last month.
The carrier restructured after two fatal accidents in 2014, with Khazanah pumping RM6 billion (US $ 1.5 billion). This time the government has said it will not rescue the struggling company.
Chief Executive Izham Ismail told staff in a memo last month that the restructuring talks were taking longer than planned.
