January 18, 2010
Japan Airlines is expected to file for bankruptcy protection Tuesday, ending months-long speculation about its fate and launching a massive overhaul to shed the fat and inefficiency that hobbled Asia’s biggest airline.
With debts of 1.5 trillion yen ($16.5 billion) as of November, the carrier will go down in Japanese corporate history as one of its biggest failures.
Its access to Asia, however, is a mouthwatering prize for foreign airlines. The tug-of-war between Delta Air Lines and American Airlines intensified even as bankruptcy loomed, with the latest media reports pointing to Delta as the eventual winner.
The bankruptcy filing will most likely be immediately followed by a restructuring plan crafted by a government-backed corporate turnaround body. The government itself will offer assurances of support for the airline’s rehabilitation and ongoing operations, the Nikkei financial daily said.
Investors Monday braced for a seemingly inevitable removal of the airline’s shares from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The issue, which has lost more than 90% of its value over the last week, tumbled another 29% Monday to 5 yen. The company is now essentially worthless, with a market capitalization of about $150 million — the price of one Boeing 787 jet.
It’s a humbling outcome for Japan’s once-proud flagship carrier, called JAL for short, which was founded in 1951 and spent its early years owned by the state. Along with Japan’s economy, it expanded quickly in the decades after World War II and was privatized in 1987.
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But it soon became the victim of its own ambitions.
When Japan’s property and stock bubble of the 1980s burst, risky investments in foreign resorts and hotels undermined its bottom line. JAL also shouldered growing pension and payroll costs, as well as a big network of unprofitable domestic routes it was politically obligated to maintain.
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