Philippine Airlines (PAL) has elected ANA Holdings, Inc. (ANA HD) senior advisor Ryuhei Maeda as a member of its Board of Directors, after the Japanese firm acquired a 9.5% share in the Philippine flag carrier’s parent company, PAL Holdings, Inc.
Maeda, who is also a board member of Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd., was elected during PAL Holdings’ annual stockholders’ meeting on May 30. He completes the 15-member PAL Board for 2019.
ANA HD, the parent firm of All Nippon Airways, Japan’s largest airline and a 5-star carrier for six consecutive years, invested US$95 million to acquire shares from Trustmark Holdings, Inc., the majority stakeholder of PAL Holdings, the parent company of PAL.
The election of an ANA HD director to PAL’s board was part of the agreement between the parties.
PAL earlier said it may benefit from the business knowledge and experience of the ANA HD director, but noted that apart from being a board member, “ANA HD has no rights with respect to the management team of the company and/or PAL.”
The shares acquisition is in line with ANA Holdings’ mid-term corporate strategy for 2018-2022 to expand its international group network, considered its main growth pillar, and strengthen its partnerships with foreign airlines to provide further convenience to its passengers.
PAL Holdings disclosed that Trustmark “is expected to use the purchase price from the sale of shares to ANA HD to continue its support for the operations and the potential expansion programs of Philippine Airlines.”
Once the transaction is completed, foreign ownership in PAL Holdings will increase from 8.77% to 18.27%. PAL Holdings said that it does not expect the public float to change and that upon completion of the transaction, public ownership of the company is expected to remain at the present level of 10.32%.
PAL Holdings has also applied for government approval to increase its authorized capital stock from the current P13.5 billion to P20 billion, in support of its ongoing network and fleet expansion initiatives to position PAL as a strong market player.
PAL currently operates 84 flights weekly on nine routes to Japan, while ANA operates 14 flights weekly on two routes to the Philippines. The two carriers have codeshare operations on Japan-Philippine routes and on domestic routes within Japan and the Philippines, linking a total of 16 Japanese and 11 Philippine destinations.
PAL has seen its fleet and network grow to almost 100 aircraft and 80 destinations in four continents.
