BANGKOK — Mired in debt and reeling from the loss of two aircraft this year, Malaysia Airlines will be fully taken over by the government as a prelude to a "comprehensive" restructuring, a Malaysian government agency announced Friday.
Khazanah Nasional, the investment arm of the Malaysian government, formally requested the delisting of the airline in a letter to the Malaysian stock exchange on Friday and offered to buy back shares at a price 12.5 percent higher than Thursday's closing price.
Khazanah, the government agency, was vague about its plans for the airline, saying only that it intended "to undertake a comprehensive review and restructuring" and that the airline had "substantial funding requirements."
Khazanah is expected to disclose more details of its rescue plan in the coming weeks. The share buyback, which would cost the agency 1.4 billion ringgit, or $437 million, still needs approval by private shareholders, who own about 30 percent of the company. Khazanah's offer price of 27 sen — 0.27 ringgit — appears favorable to shareholders: That price was last reached in February, before the company's two high-profile tragedies.
The disappearance in March of Flight 370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing remains a mystery. No trace of the aircraft or its 239 passengers has been found, and a search in the southern Indian Ocean is still underway.
In July, 298 passengers on a Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were killed when a company Boeing 777 was shot down over Ukraine.
The disasters aggravated what was already poor financial performance by the airline, which has lost money for the past three years and has been squeezed by nimbler rivals, such as Air Asia, the privately owned, low-cost airline also based out of Malaysia that has grown exponentially since beginning operations more than a decade ago.
Malaysia Airlines, which began as Malayan Airlines, in 1947 during the British colonial period, has suffered a number of sharp losses in recent decades. It has often been managed by business executives close to the governing party, the United Malays National Organization, and was bailed out by the government at least once. Like many other government-linked companies in Malaysia, the airline is saddled with links to influential contractors connected to the party, which has governed the country since independence in 1957.
The Malaysian government sees the carrier as a national strategic asset.
In a statement Friday, Khazanah said the goal of the restructuring was to make the airline profitable but also for it to "serve its function as a critical national development entity."
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