Malaysia Airlines (MH, Kuala Lumpur International) majority shareholder, Khazanah Bhd, has announced that trading of Malaysian Airline System Bhd shares will be suspended with effect from December 15.

The move is the first step towards the carrier's overall delisting from the Bursa Malaysia which will allow the sovereign wealth fund to acquire all outstanding shares in the carrier.

Once the delisting has been complete, Khazanah will disburse MYR2billion out of a total of MYR6billion (USD976.67million) in funding at the end of December. This first tranche will go towards reimbursing MAS Bhd minority shareholders as well as working capital and restructuring expenditure.

In a related development, outgoing Aer Lingus (EI, Dublin International) CEO Christoph Mueller was named as the new CEO of Malaysian Airline System Bhd's successor company, Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAS NewCo). He will be joined by Datuk Seri Mohammed Shazalli Ramli, the CEO of Malaysian telecoms firm, Celcom, who will join the MAS NewCo board as non-executive director. Both appointments are effective January 1.

“The appointments are key initiatives under the 12-point MAS Recovery Plan (MRP), which calls for the strengthening of the airline’s leadership as it transitions to MAS NewCo over the coming months to 1 July 2015,” Khazanah said in a statement.