Hong Kong is to bankroll the bulk of a $5bn bailout of Cathay Pacific, giving it a paltry 6 per cent equity slice in the de facto flag carrier and only highly circumscribed voting rights. It is a very Hong Kong solution, juggling political and commercial realities with a horribly ailing industry.
Cathay, like all airlines, was in a pickle. In the first four months of the year it carried two-thirds fewer passengers than a year ago, burning through as much as $390m a month. But unlike its other flag carriers — Lufthansa, say — it was unclear whom it should call.
An ownership restructuring that began in the 1990s was designed to reflect Cathay’s new status as flag carrier of Chinese — not colonial British — territory. Swire Pacific, emblematic of that earlier time, remains the biggest shareholder. But its grasp looks tenuous as political winds change. State-controlled Air China owns 29.99 per cent; any increase in its holding would trigger a takeover offer. Bailouts play badly in avowedly capitalist Hong Kong but pragmatism clearly won the day when confidence there is already at rock-bottom.