“[We have secured] from the bank over $2.5 billion. It will take us about three to 4 months to acquire long-term financing,” CEO Shahril Lamin told Reuters in a telephone interview.
GSV also has a commitment from the Japanese private equity firm to right away inject funds into the aviation group through an equity deal.
Edge The weekly first reported GSV’s proposal over the weekend.
GSV declined to call the businesses involved and said it was also in talks with other foreign banks and personal equity firms regarding further financing.
GSV presented its proposal to Morgan Stanley, a banker employed by the aviation group’s sole owner, Khazanah Nasional Bhd.
Earlier, it was said that Air France-KLM, Japan Airlines and domestic carriers AirAsia Group Bhd and Malindo Air had shown interest in Malaysia Airlines.
GSV said it will also assume a lot of the airline’s debt incurred by the federal government in the shape of issued Islamic bonds.
Khazanah and Morgan Stanley didn’t immediately reply to emailed requests for comment.
Is Malaysia Airlines price saving?
Is Malaysia Airlines price saving?
The proposal assumes maintaining the so-called the federal government’s golden share, which supplies it majority voting rights, in addition to maintaining Malaysia Airlines’ flag carrier status.
GSV expects to have sufficient liquidity to enable Malaysia Airlines to operate comfortably for as much as 18 months.
It intends to re-establish Malaysia Airlines as a premium long-haul airline by expanding its route network and maximizing the utilization of its 81-aircraft fleet. It also plans to keep up other business units similar to a low-cost airline, a cargo freighter and a maintenance repair and overhaul unit.
“[It] continues to be a profitable enterprise, it has inherent strengths. We are saying that we are going to not lay off 13,000 frontline staff and we have now no intention of stripping the airline of assets,” said deputy CEO Ravindran Devagunam.
The company goals to attain positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization inside three years of acquisition and achieve revenues of 15 billion ringgit by 2025.
Singapore Airlines says merging Malaysia Airlines is the “best” approach
Singapore Airlines says merging Malaysia Airlines is the “best” approach
Plans for a stock market listing “or series of IPOs” are also being considered inside three to 5 years, they said.
Ravindran said the corporate is banking on pent-up travel demand once the coronavirus is under control. “No matter how long [the virus] it will take this year, we expect the industry to recover from summer 2021.”
