KUALA LUMPUR: Khazanah Nasional Bhd, which wholly owns soon-to-be-closed Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS), has appointed an administrator to oversee the migration of the national airline’s assets and liabilities to new company Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB) by Sept 1.

In a statement yesterday, the state-owned investment arm said it had appointed Datuk Mohammad Faiz Azmi as the administrator of MAS.

Khazanah, which is restructuring MAS, said MAS will continue to run the airline’s operations until Aug 31, after which MAB will take over.

“The appointment is a voluntary undertaking by Khazanah and is made pursuant to the Malaysian Airline System Bhd (Administration) Act 2015 (MAS Act), which was passed by both houses of Parliament last year.

“The MAS Act provides for an effective, efficient and seamless means to transition the business, property, rights, liabilities and affairs of MAS to MAB,” Khazanah said.

According to Khazanah, the transition from MAS to MAB is a crucial component of the 12-point MAS recovery plan (MRP), which was announced on Aug 29 last year. The MRP includes conditional investment funding by Khazanah of up to RM6 billion, disbursed on a staggered basis.

Khazanah plans to cut one-third or 6,000 of the airline’s estimated 20,000 workforce. Khazanah privatised MAS last year as part of its restructuring plan for MAS.

MAS’ corporate revamp follows financial losses after the airline was involved in two aviation tragedies last year.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 26, 2015.