Malaysia Airlines seeks aid from wealth fund Khazanah, creditor talks continue

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“Malaysia Aviation Group has requested financial support from our shareholder Khazanah Nasional although the company isn’t in a position to comment on amount at this point in time,” it said in an email to Reuters.

The group said it remains in talks for a restructuring and that it was targeting a commercial agreement 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 unnamed sources.

Khazanah did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Malaysia Airlines is seeking to restructure after the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to slash operations.

The parent company had warned leasing companies that Khazanah would stop funding the group and force it into a winding down process if restructuring talks with lessors were unsuccessful, Reuters reported last month.

The carrier restructured after two deadly crashes in 2014, with Khazanah pumping in 6 billion ringgit ($1.5 billion). This time the government has said it will not bail out the struggling company.

Chief Executive Izham Ismail told staff in a memo last month that the restructuring talks were taking longer than planned.