[ad_1]
Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund has hired Morgan Stanley to explore various options, including a sale of equity stake in Malaysia Airlines, which is trying to redress the situation of the country's besieged national carrier.
Deputy Minister Mohamed Farid Md Rafik confirmed to the Malaysian parliament that Khazanah, the country's sovereign wealth fund, hired the investment bank as an independent advisor as part of the airline's stimulus package.
He added that one of the options considered was for the state to reduce its participation in a minority stake.
The Malaysian airline was nationalized and privatized by Khazanah in 2014, but failed to generate profits in difficult conditions for the country's aviation sector. According to the Center for Aviation, the growth of pbadenger traffic in the country has slowed significantly to 3% in 2018, against 10% the previous year, Air Asia being the only one of the six Malaysian airlines to make a profit the year latest.
The airline's poor performance also weighed on Khazanah's finances, with impairment charges related to its contribution contributing to a pre-tax loss of RMB 6.3 billion ($ 1.53 billion) for the Wealth Fund. in 2018.
Due to the slowdown in state finances, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad raised the possibility of closing the airline. Earlier this month, he said the government was considering four investor proposals.
Malaysia Airlines experienced a steady decline in pbadenger numbers as a result of two air disasters in 2014. MH 370 was reported missing in the South Indian Ocean in March of that year, while MH 17 was shot down four months later by a surface-to-air missile on the Ukraine.
Although investigators have not been able to determine the fate of MH 370, Dutch prosecutors have indicted four Russian army and intelligence officers from Russia and Ukraine related murder to this latest catastrophe, thus reinforcing international pressure on Moscow.
Source link
