AJ & Rashdan: MAS or MAS management is in crisis?

Updates 6-3-2012: Apparently there was no due diligence carried out before inking in the much talked about secret MAS-AirAsia share swap wrote Outsyed The Box. Well, on 14-8-2011 five days after the said secret share swap agreement was inked by Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, MD of Khazanah Nasional Bhd (Khazanah) and ex-business partner of En Mohammed Rashdan Yusof aka Danny Boy, Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar admitted to the bloggers on that very night that the option to purchase the 10% share of AirAsia X Sdn Bhd was a “DODGY DEAL”. Despite it was a “dodgy deal” Khazanah went ahead to appoint Morgan Stanley Investment Banker to evaluate the share of AirAsia X Sdn Bhd. By now Khazanah may have had exercised the the said 10% option. Typical of the people from the famous “Bina Tak Fikir”. Yours truly will try to get answers about this “DODGY DEAL”  from Parliament when Parliament is in session commencing March 12, 2012.  Read HERE for the article: AirAsia “Now Everyone Cannot Fly” , “Is AirAsia that cheap?” by the Mole in HERE and HERE.

On 1-3-2012 En Ahmad Jauhari Yahya (AJ), the MAS CEO, and his deputy, En Mohammed Rashdan Yusof aka Danny (Rashdan), the ex-business partner of Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar (Amok) in BinaFikir Sdn Bhd, have proudly announced that MAS posted RM2.5 bilion losses for year ending 2011. AJ also said that MAS is in crisis! Perhaps it is a case of MAS management is in crisis because they are clueless about the aviation industry. Please read in HERE for the press report. 

It is interesting to note that Rashdan, the Amok’s crony, has been quoted to have said that “he did not rule out the possibility of a cash call and the selling of non-core assets to raise cash.” A typical “Bina Tak Fikir” approach to the situation. This was what both Rashdan and Amok, when they were partners in BinaFikir Sdn Bhd, did to MAS in 2002 / 2003 under the failed project known as “Widespread Assets UN-Bundling” (WAU).

In 2003 under WAU, MAS sold 70% of its share in MAS Catering Sdn Bhd (MAS Catering) to Gubahan Saujana Sdn Bhd, a company controlled by Datuk Hj Ibrahim bin Ahmad Badawi, the brother of the former PM. In June 2006, Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar was appointed the MD for Khazanah Nasional Bhd by the Badawi Administration, in HERE.   

After the sale of the 70% of MAS Catering, MAS entered into a 25 years one sided agreement with MAS Catering. If MAS terminated the said one sided MAS had to buy back the said share. Until this date, the details of the said one sided agreement has not been made public. Soon thereafter, Gubahan Saujana Sdn Bhd sold 51% of its 70% share in MAS Catering to Tamadam Bonded Warehouse Bhd for the value of RM130 million and the remaining 49% to LSG Asia GMBH, a subsidiary of Lufthansa. Only God knows, how much did Gubahan Saujanah Sdn Bhd sell the 49%? Please read in HERE.

MAS Catering is now known as LSG Sky Chef Brahim Sdn Bhd (LSG).  MAS logo is no longer in LSG although MAS is the biggest customer of LSG. It is a case of history re-written by WAU!

Rashdan, the Amok’s crony, must have in his mind of disposing of MAS non-core asset like what has been done to MAS Catering under WAU.  Yours truly believes that Rashdan, the Amok’s crony, must be thinking of disposing MAS Engineering, MAS Cargo and the like to “you know who”. Then MAS will sign a back to back one sided agreement with “you know who”.  This was the modus operandi under WAU, which was a case of “Bina Tak Fikir”. Then Amok’s crony will call it WAU-2!  But at what cost to MAS and the nation!

Now lets look at AJ’s closing remark: “if we follow our business plan, we should be in the black (this year).“  AJ was confident because of the provisions of RM1.09 billion for non-cash items in the RM2.5 billion losses, which the new MAS management was relying on to justify their senseless acts of cancellation of Firefly full load flights during Raya season, terminations of Firefly and MAS profitable routes, moving office to KLIA, changing of letterheads and signage and etc all under the name of “cost cuttings”. But at the same time the ex-BinaFikir went on a spending spree like paying sponsorship money of RM18 million to QPR, employing Mat Salleh consultants and etc when MAS was supposed to be bleeding. Please read in HERE.

The new management is not thinking of generating more revenue by flying to more destinations in competition with other airlines including AirAsia and plug the LEAKAGES in MAS like removing the “deadwoods” and looking into ways and means to cancel the one sided contract with LSG which has a remaining period of about another 15 years.  Well, disposal of so-called non-core assets is an easy way out for management that is bogged down with consultant mentality! If this is the way to turn around MAS then MAS does not need Rashdan, the Amok’s crony, and the Mat Salleh consultants to manage MAS.   

In any event, the RM2.5 billion figure quoted by AJ and  Rashdan, the Amok’s crony, was based on “UNAUDITED ACCOUNTS” of MAS.  So the managmenet can make all kinds of provision as they like to inflate the losses so that they will look good at the end of the year as they have got RM1.09 billion cushion to play with. Why can AJ and Rashdan produce an audited accounts for us to see what they have achieved after they taken over MAS. 

Presumably with En Rozman Omar, the former key employee of AirAsia, Mr Martin Burrow and other Mat Salleh consultants like PlaneConsult on board, MAS  will be in the black by year end as guaranteed by AJ and Rashdan, the Amok’s crony.

Well, Parliament will be sitting on 12 Marh 2012 and yours truly is sure that Rashdan, AJ, Amok and the Mat Salleh consultants will be one of the hot topics for debate.  Lets see what the Minister of Transport and Minister of Finance have got to say about those “SENSELESS ACTS” done by Rashdan, the Amok’s crony. Please read HERE and HERE.

Please also read an interesting article on the same subject matter by Another Brick In The Wall in HERE.