KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 14): Jentayu Danaraksa Sdn Bhd, a newly set-up financial advisory firm in August, plans to buy 82 aircraft, MAS Engineering and Firefly from the ailing national air carrier Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS).

According to Jentayu Danaraksa’s major shareholder and managing director Feriz Omar, the firm intends to be involved in aircraft leasing as well as budget airline, should the acquisition of these strategic assets materialised.

Jentayu Danaraksa also plans to takeover Syarikat Penerbangan Malaysia Bhd (PMB), which leases aircraft to MAS. PMB is currently owned by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and has four old aircraft.

"On priority basis, the 86 planes is number one, MAS Engineering is number two, Firefly is number three," Feriz Omar told the reporters in a closed door media briefing here today.

"We will focus on the aircraft leasing business as this is the heart of aviation industry. You need to own the planes, then you lease it out. It depends on dynamic and how creative you are," he said.

On funding, Feriz said the company has secured financing support from foreign investors in the Middle East and Japan, but did not name them nor say how much.

Feriz said more details, particularly on the acquisition cost of the strategic assets, will be revealed in one to two weeks.

"We have yet to obtain the exact information on these strategic assets from Khazanah Nasional Bhd and MAS," he added.

To recap, Jentayu Danaraksa had on Nov 3 made an alternative proposal for the restructuring of MAS, which had received backing from MAS Employees' Union (Maseu), an influential and the biggest union of the loss-making airline.