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Malaysia Airlines bidders express interest but coy about vision
July 12th 2019
Former AirAsia executive bidding for MAS: structural problems but no redundancies. Read More »
A bidder for Malaysia Airlines (MAS) said the flag carrier has a structural cost problem but if his consortium is successful in taking 49% of the airline would not have in staff redundancies.
“We have assured the Prime Minister that we will not sack anybody at Malaysia Airlines,” Datuk Pahamin Ab Rajab told the Malaysia Star.
Other details from Pahamin about his plans for MAS should please government ears. He would not ask for financial support, loans or guarantees and would not change the MAS brand or name be changed.
But is unclear what MAS will do and be in the future. Pahamin said MAS would be “international” and that the government should not interfere in the management of the carrier. Government interference is widely considered to have dogged MAS’s recent restructuring attempts.
Pahamin’s plan also calls for MAS turboprop subsidiary, Firefly, to be converted to the region’s first “ultra-low-cost carrier” aimed at millennials.
He also wants “exclusive” rights to do due diligence that he said needs three months although other reports say the process will six to nine months. Pahamin and five partners are using Najah Air Sdn Bhd to bid for 51% of MAS. Sovereign wealth fund Khazanah would retain 49%. The government backed fund owns MAS in its entirety. One partner in the bidding consortium is from the UK and four are from Malaysia. Details are undisclosed except that the British partner has aviation experience.
Pahamin was non-executive chairman of AirAsia for seven years from 2001-2008. He acknowledged this fuels speculation that his proposed MAS investment is connected with the AirAsia group. He denied any connection and said: “We have not been talking to Fernandes. He is not involved in our proposal. He will be my competitor if we get to turn around Malaysia Airlines.”
Other bidders are said to be former employees of Khazanah, Jentayu Danaraksa Sdn Bhd, and either Qatar Airways or a government vehicle linked to it.
Malaysia Airlines management wants to continue the carrier as Malaysian-owned. Recent strategic developments seem to show management taking action and entrenching MAS in a new strategy. A joint venture with Japan Airlines earlier this year has been followed by a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore Airlines. The current MAS management has not made public its total vision for the airline.
Malaysia’s prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, said he was considering four proposals for MAS.
