Philippine Airlines said its expects to close a deal with a strategic investor by the first quarter of next year.
PAL president and chief operating officer Jaime Bautista said over the weekend talks with the potential strategic investor were in advanced stages.
“Hopefully (the deal will be closed by) first quarter of 2019,” Bautista said.
The investor is expected to acquire up to 40 percent of the flag carrier.
PAL tapped Morgan Stanley as financial advisor of the transaction.
PAL Holdings Inc., the airline’s parent company, earlier reported a total comprehensive loss of P444.78 million in the first six months, up 59 percent from P279.79 million in the same period last year.
The company booked a comprehensive loss of P243.11 million in the second quarter of the year from a profit of P254.28 million year-on-year.
The country’s flag carrier registered total revenues of P75.13 billion in the first half of the year, up 13 percent from P66.31 billion on year.
“The P8.82-billion growth in revenues was primarily due to the increase in passengers and cargoes carried as a result of increase in number of flights operated as well as improvement in yields,” PAL Holdings said.
PAL Holdings’ total expenses climbed 15.2 percent to P75.57 billion from the previous year’s P65.61 billion, mainly due to the increase in mounted flights.
PAL’s fuel expenses increased 27 percent as a result of the escalation in the average price per barrel of aviation fuel from $74.99 in 2017 to $91.08 in 2018.