LONDON: Bjorn Kjos, a pioneer of low-cost travel as co-founder of Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, is stepping down as chief executive officer (CEO) after making progress toward resolving a debt crisis that resulted from rapid expansion at the discount carrier.

Kjos, who helped found Norwegian in 1993, will leave the CEO post immediately, the company said today in a statement.

Chief financial officer Geir Karlsen will become interim CEO until a permanent successor is found.

A former fighter pilot, Kjos established Norwegian as a major force in the European short-haul market, taking on no-frills giants led by Ryanair Holdings.

After that market proved tough to crack, he altered course to target low-cost long-haul flights, challenging giants such as British Airways on trans-Atlantic routes.

His heavily discounted fares proved popular with the public but margins were thin and fleet costs stretched the balance sheet to breaking point.

Over the past year, Kjos, 72, has reversed the growth trajectory to stabilise the company and preserve profit.

“This was my last presentation, you can be happy with that,“ Kjos said with a wide grin, his arms outstretched on a video call after the company reported second-quarter results.

In Karlsen, “you have a very good guy here taking over from me.”

The turnaround picked up pace in the second quarter, as earnings before interest and tax more than tripled to 622.8 million kroner (US$73 million).

The improvement has been secured by dropping the worst-performing routes, slowing aircraft deliveries and generally reining in the pace of growth.

Capacity gained 6% in the period versus a 48% surge a year ago.

Norwegian shares declined 3.9% to 42.990 kroner as of 10:13am in Oslo, after earlier rising as much as 4.6%.

The shares are down 69% in the past year, after BA owner IAG dropped a takeover bid and a rights offering announced in February diluted equity owners.

Analysts at DNB suggested the CEO change without a permanent replacement, along with further cuts to growth plans and a smaller cash balance than expected would be negatives for the stock and trigger a revision to full-year earnings estimates.

A 700 million-kroner hit from the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max, and Norwegian’s low fuel hedges, have also left the carrier exposed, Goodbody analysts said in a separate note.

Succession plan

Kjos has been CEO since 2002, as well as taking stints as chairman.

During his tenure, the company has gone from a regional operator with 130 staff and four planes to a global airline employing more than 11,000 people and operating 162 aircraft.

“You shouldn’t lead an airline past your 70s,” Kjos said. “I’m way overdue to retire.”

He had been saying for months that he wanted to retire after earnings showed signs of a recovery.

Kjos will retain direct links to management as an adviser to Chairman Niels Smedegaard, 57, who plans to take on a more active role as the company shifts its focus toward profitability.

“You are one of the foremost entrepreneurs of your time, in spite of challenges right now in Norwegian, one of the toughest businesses in the world,” Smedegaard said.

The ultimate fate of the airline remains unclear, with a report last week suggesting IAG is planning a fresh bid after earlier approaches were rejected – though the London-based group said that wasn’t the case.

Deutsche Lufthansa also examined a purchase and the departure of Kjos following the exit in May of his ally, former chairman Bjorn Kise, may stoke further interest among major industry players.

Another major item on the do-list is to secure a joint-venture plan that would bring in new financing for the airline’s fleet plan and help fund a bond maturity later this year.

Interim CEO Karlsen said Thursday that talks on the joint venture are progressing and the company expects clarity within weeks.

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court today granted Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng leave to proceed with his appeal relating to his defamation suit against Perkasa and two others.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak David Wong Dak Wah and Federal Court judges Mohd Zawawi Salleh and Nallini Pathmanathan allowed Lim’s application fort leave to appeal against the appellate court’s decision.

On Dec 21, 2016, the Court of Appeal allowed the appeals by Perkasa and two newspapers to overturn a decision by the High Court which ordered them to pay damages to Lim for defaming him.

The appellate court had ruled that Lim, who was then Penang chief minister, could not sue the media for defamation in his official capacity.

Then Court of Appeal judge Rohana Yusuf (now Federal Court judge) had said the court was bound by its earlier decision in the case of Utusan Melayu against former Pahang menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob, that a public official could not sue anyone, including the media, for defamation.

Rohana said the court had accepted the principles decided in an English law case, Derbyshire County Council vs The Times Newspapers Ltd and Others (1993).

Today, Lim only pursued his application for leave against Perkasa, its president Ibrahim Ali and former Perkasa information chief Ruslan Kassim.

He had withdrawn the application for leave to appeal against The New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd (NSTP) and Utusan Melayu (M) Sdn Bhd on March 5, after they agreed to reinstate the High Court decision and pay him RM200,000 each in damages.

In today’s proceedings, Justice Wong allowed Lim leave to appeal on a sole legal question to be determined by the Federal Court at the appeal proper.

The question of law which was consented by all parties was pertaining to Lim’s locus standi to maintain the lawsuit in his official capacity.

Lim had filed the defamation suit in 2012 against the seven respondents, claiming that Ruslan had published a statement on Perkasa’s website on Oct 1, 2011, which implied he was endangering national security by exposing the country’s secrets to Singapore.

On March 26, 2015, the High Court found NSTP, its former group editor Syed Nazri Syed Harun, Utusan Melayu, its group editor-in-chief Abdul Aziz Ishak, Perkasa, Ibrahim and Ruslan Kassim liable for defamation.

The High Court ordered Perkasa to pay RM150,000, while NSTP and Utusan were to pay RM200,000 each in damages.

Lawyer Americk Singh Sidhu appeared for Lim while counsel Hussin Mohd Razak represented Ruslan, and lawyer Adnan Seman appeared for Ibrahim and Perkasa.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — The late Karpal Singh’s daughter, lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo, may withdraw her suit against a former chief justice in connection with the alleged interference by the judiciary in the outcome of her father’s sedition case and on the religious conversion of three Hindu children.

“I may withdraw the suit but it really depends on the progress of the case,” Sangeet told reporters after case management before High Court Judge Datuk Mohd Firuz Jaffril in chambers here today in the presence of Senior Federal Counsel S. Narkunavathy.

Narkunavathy said the Attorney General’s Chambers had requested for the applicant (Sangeet) to withhold from withdrawing the suit pending the outcome of their application to expunge large portions of Court of Appeal Judge Datuk Hamid Sultan Abu Backer’s affidavit.

“No decision has been made on that matter and the judge has fixed August 6 for next case management,” she said.

Sangeet also said that she had made a formal request to current Chief Justice, Datuk Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, to have this matter investigated.

“I do not think that the outcome of the Federal Court addresses this complaint which is a stain on Malaysian judiciary,” she said.

On March 29, the Federal Court acquitted the late Karpal Singh of a sedition charge for allegedly questioning the late Sultan of Perak’s action relating to the Perak crisis after ruling that there was a serious misdirection of law by the High Court and Court of Appeal as both courts failed to evaluate the former DAP national chairman’s (Karpal Singh’s) defence.

The apex court had allowed the appeal to set aside Karpal Singh’s conviction and fine of RM1,800. His widow Gurmit Kaur, 70, acted as a substitute appellant in the appeal.

Sangeet said until today there was no investigation or no real outcome in relation to the allegations of interference in the Court of Appeal (CoA) decision.

“I feel the matter still needs to be investigated,” she said, adding that she had written to the CJ and hoped the matter will be investigated.

Sangeet said since the CJ (Tengku Maimun) had previously sat on the CoA panel, they will have to reconsider the right party to investigate the allegations.

“So, the case is pending at the moment and that is my ultimate goal, to have these allegations investigated and not for it to just silently disappear,” she said.

On February 14, Hamid Sultan filed the 63-page affidavit in support of an originating summons filed by Sangeet against the chief justice at that time.

In the originating summons, Sangeet sought, among others, a declaration that the chief justice had failed to perform his duties as the head of the judiciary to defend its integrity and credibility when he failed to complete investigations relating to two allegations of judicial interference in relation to the decision on her late father Karpal Singh’s sedition appeal and in the conversion case of kindergarten teacher M. Indira Gandhi’s children. — Bernama

SUNGKAI, July 11 — The Health Ministry will not review the appointment of transwoman Rania Zara Medina as a member of the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) Malaysia for the 2019-2021 session despite being pressured to do so.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad said that selecting a representative from the target group, which in this case the trans community, and appointing one of its members as a CCM member has been the standard practice since the previous administration.

“The appointment of Rania was done in accordance with the law and based on the standard operating procedure. There is no need to review or reconsider the appointment,” he told reporters after launching the Orang Asli teeth icon programme at Kampung Orang Asli Menderang 1 here.

“Anyone can suggest that the appointment should be reconsidered and we will go through it, but in this case, Rania’s appointment followed the law so there will not be any changes,” he added.

Rania’s appointment created a stir among the Opposition bloc as a few women leaders, especially from Umno and PAS, demanded an explanation and urged the government to review the appointment.

Wanita Umno chief Datuk Noraini Ahmad yesterday demanded the government explain why a transwoman was named to the Health Ministry’s CCM committee.

“Rania is known as a fighter for lesbians, gays, bisexuals dan transsexuals, and such unnatural lifestyles as practised by these individuals are in opposition to societal norms,” Noraini said.

While PAS Muslimat chief Nuridah Mohd Salleh said that Rania has no business being on the committee for CCM and questioned how the appointment could happen in the first place.

“How Rania, as a transgender, be able to give her views on handing the HIV/AIDS disease when one of the main causes of the disease is same-sex relation?” Nuridah asked. 

BERLIN: There is no foundation to a newspaper report that said Germany and France had agreed some time ago to support the Bank of England’s Mark Carney as a replacement for IMF chief Christine Lagarde, a German finance ministry spokesman said.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung had on Tuesday reported that Berlin and Paris had originally agreed to support Carney with a view to him taking over at the Washington-based IMF in 2021, though this had been moved forward.

Lagarde was last week nominated to head the European Central Bank.

Germany wants a European to become the next head of the IMF, the finance ministry spokesman previously said.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — A survey conducted by UCSI Poll Research Centre found Malaysians would be unhappy if there was no National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) study loans for future generations.  

According to the centre’s chief executive officer, Assistant Professor Dr Noppadon Kannika, the study that polled 700 people also found slightly more than half (51.6 per cent) of the PTPTN borrowers were more likely to pay back their education loan under their current financial situation.

It also found 73.1 per cent of the respondents agreed with the idea of deferring repayment for those earning less than RM2,000 a month while 65.8 per cent want loan waivers for those who graduate with first class honours to be done away with or replaced with partial waivers.

“About 55.3 per cent asked for an income-based repayment scheme for new borrowers. However, 45.1 per cent of the respondents refused to have defaulters prosecuted,” he said in a statement issued here today.

The survey was conducted to gauge public opinions on the new loan repayment mechanism.  

“This survey can assist PTPTN and the Education Ministry to look into alternatives to formulate the policy on addressing the issues at hand. It is to find out what borrowers want and to find a meeting point through the policy,” said Noppadon.

The survey was conducted between June 22 and July 9 in Kuala Lumpur with respondents of different income groups and educational background. — Bernama