Qatar Airways becomes third largest shareholder of Cathay Pacific with HK$5 billion share purchase
Investor Kingboard Chemical sells its entire 9.61 per cent stake in Cathay Pacific to the Middle Eastern carrier for an HK$800 million gain
The state-owned Middle Eastern carrier, which bought the stake from Hong Kong industrial company Kingboard Chemical, became Cathay Pacific’s third biggest shareholder.
Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar Al Baker heaped praise on his new acquisition as “one of the strongest airlines in the world, respected throughout the industry and with massive potential for the future,” and his counterpart, Cathay Pacific CEO Rupert Hogg, said his airline “looked forward to a continued constructive relationship.”
Air China, the airline’s second largest shareholder, had a more cautious response, having had no contact with Qatar as of yesterday. Asked about the exact benefit to Cathay Pacific resulting from the decision, board secretary Zhou Feng told the Post it would be “hard to project”, adding “everything depends on how we cooperate in future”, but noted the addition of a new airline shareholder “was not a bad decision,” as it could help “facilitate the decision-making” of Cathay Pacific’s business.