KHAZANAH Nasional Bhd and Malaysia Aviation Group Bhd (MAGB) have shortlisted four strategic investors to turn around the loss-making national carrier, said Mohamed Azmin Ali.

The economics affairs minister told the Dewan Rakyat today that sovereign wealth fund Khazanah and MAGB, which is Malaysia Airlines Bhd’s (MAB) holding company, in August invited 20 strategic investors for a possible tie-up.

The offers by the 20 parties were scrutinised since last month. The shortlisted four are now subject to further evaluation.

“Khazanah and MAGB will evaluate the four shortlisted investors thoroughly and completely,” said Azmin.

He said emphasis will be placed on creating operations synergy and encouraging prudent spending, which will allow MAB to rise again as a sustainable and high-performing airline.

A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) prevents details on the matter from being made public, he said.

To a supplementary question by Alexander Nanta Linggi (GPS-Kapit) on when MAB’s financial woes are expected to end, Azmin said all proposals to achieve that aim will be presented at a Khazanah board meeting after the further evaluation of the four parties’ offers is completed next month.

“If the Khazanah board agrees with the proposals presented, we hope a decision can be made regarding the long-term strategic partner for (MAB) by the end of this year or early 2020.”

To Mustapa Mohamed’s (PH-Jeli) supplementary question on whether the government will continue to hold the “golden share” in the airline and if it will tie up with the AirAsia Group, Azmin said Putrajaya intends to continue to hold a substantial stake, via Khazanah, in MAB’s new structure.

“However we cannot finalise this yet because the evaluation due process is ongoing. There were potential strategic partners who proposed to hold a majority share, and there were also those of the view that Khazanah should maintain a majority stake. All these are being considered.

“The most important thing is that the government will continue to have a say and the majority (stake) in the new structure.”

On AirAsia, he said Putrajaya cannot divulge details as talks are bound by an NDA.

However, he said, there are international and regional players being considered.

Since Khazanah embarked on its 12-point turnaround plan, MAGB reported losses of RM1.2 billion per year for 2015 and 2017, and RM799 million for 2016. – October 22, 2019.