MANILA (AFP) — Philippine Airlines will come out of receivership in October, the national carrier said Monday, ahead of schedule and amid an improved financial position.
"The airline will come out of receivership much sooner than its original year-end target and continue to look seriously at financing options to further improve its capitalisation," PAL Holdings president Jaime Bautista said.
Bautista issued the statement Monday after PAL Holdings' annual stockholders meeting.
PAL Holdings, controlled by Filipino-Chinese tycoon Lucio Tan, owns 84.7 percent of the airline, which entered receivership in June 1998 after suffering massive financial losses caused by external and internal problems.
Bautista said PAL's "markedly improved" financial performance, highlighted by an eight-year streak of operational profits, meant the airline has fully recovered and is ready to exit from the receivership framework supervised by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
PAL's net profit in the three months to June more than doubled to 34.5 million dollars from 17.2 million in the same period last year, driven by higher revenue from its passenger and cargo businesses.
PAL chief finance officer Andrew Huang said in August the airline has paid a total of 1.87 billion dollars of its debt over the past few years, and will pay the balance of 950 million over the next seven years.
Huang said PAL has no plans to seek a restructuring of its outstanding debt, which will be settled using internally generated funds.
PAL recently concluded financing deals with France's Calyon Credit Agricole CIB and Germany's KfW-IBEX Bank for its acquisition of two new Airbus A320 aircraft, its first loan deals with the aircraft-financing sector in a decade.
The airline is modernising its fleet by acquiring 14 A320s, of which it has ordered nine and taken out options on five.
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