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 Christoph Mueller, a German national credited with turning around
Aer Lingus [AERLI.UL], took the helm at state-owned Malaysia
Airlines in May last year on a three-year contract, as it attempted
to pull itself back after the loss of two Boeing 777s in less than a
year.
Among the front-runners to replace him as CEO is chief operating
officer and Irishman Peter Bellew, formerly with Ryanair <RYA.I>,
who sits on the group's board, industry sources and sources familiar
with the matter said.
Another is Malaysian executive Mohammed Shazalli Ramly, head of
unlisted telecommunications firm Celcom Axiata Bhd, who has no
experience in airlines but joined the board last year.
"It is a strategic national company with lots of national pride
involved. When they hired (Mueller), the cannot just say they did
not anticipate this from the beginning," said Tian Chua, national
vice president of opposition party PKR.
He said his party had advised the government in 2014 that it was
"unfair" to bring in a foreigner for the job.
"The point is that the government did not properly consider all the
possible factors that affect this decision."
Surprising even those close to him in the company, Mueller announced
his departure for unspecified family reasons late on Tuesday, giving
no further detail. He will leave the top job in September, though he
remains a non-executive director.
With little detail to go on, politicians, newspapers and social
media have blamed the exit on everything from internal disagreements
to political rows and friction with Khazanah [KHAZA.UL], the
Malaysian sovereign wealth fund which bankrolled the bail-out.
Mueller dismissed rumors in a town hall with employees, according to
newspaper reports. Neither the company nor Mueller have commented
further. The government has not commented, while Khazanah has said
it would have wanted Mueller to continue, but respected his
decision. It has not commented further.
Malaysia Airlines did not respond to Reuters' request for comment on
Thursday.
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INDUSTRY NEWCOMER
But whatever the real reason, analysts say, fresh debate over the
choice of a foreigner for the top job will prove a headache for the
government and the airline, which had anticipated Mueller would give
way to a local successor in time.
"For stability, an internal (candidate) sounds better, but who
knows," said Mohsin Aziz, analyst at Maybank Investment Bank in
Kuala Lumpur.
Shazalli Ramly, if appointed, would not be the first executive
without an industry background to successfully run an airline: Kazuo
Inamori successfully turned around Japan Airlines (JAL) with no
previous experience at all in aviation management.
But such appointments and successes are rare.
Any successor will also be expected to complete the course chartered
by Mueller - and it is all even tougher, analysts predict, in a
country where running the flag carrier involves unions who have
close ties to the ruling party.
"(Mueller) made the airline more professional and I don't know if
that will continue with his departure," one company executive said.
(Reporting by Praveen Menon in KUALA LUMPUR and Siva Govindasamy in
SINGAPORE; Editing by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Muralikumar
Anantharaman)
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