PAL ends Sept. with P1.5-B loss since bankruptcy filing
PHILIPPINE Airlines, Inc. (PAL) ended September with a loss of $29.56 million, or P1.5 billion, since its Chapter 11 filing on Sept. 3, its chief financial officer said.
Signed by PAL Chief Financial Officer Nilo Thaddeus P. Rodriguez, the embattled airline’s end-September report to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York showed it had a gross income of $91.75 million for the month.
The airline said the cost of goods sold from Sept. 3 to 30 reached $90.42 million, resulting in a gross profit of $1.33 million.
PAL filed its September operating report on Oct. 15, according to a copy of the document from the airline’s claims agent Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC.
Selling expenses, general and administrative expenses, and other expenses were $3.83 million, $4.90 million, and $14.36 million, respectively.
The bankruptcy court has allowed PAL to access the remainder of its debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing of $505 million.
US bankruptcy court judge Shelley C. Chapman issued the “final order” authorizing PAL to obtain “post-petition financing” on Sept. 30 after the second day hearing held that day.
PAL’s DIP financing is composed of a multi-draw term loan facility of $250 million — access to $20 million of which was approved by the bankruptcy court recently — and another multi-draw term loan of $255 million.
The airline expects to exit its recovery phase by 2022, with operating activities seen to generate more consistent positive monthly cash flow.
Its listed holding company, PAL Holdings, Inc. (not included in the Chapter 11 filing), had been incurring losses even before the global health crisis. Its attributable net loss widened to P71.91 billion in 2020 from P10.31 billion in 2019. — Arjay L. Balinbin
