Monday, May 30, 2011
BEIRUT (Zawya Dow Jones)--Kuwait National Airways (KNA.KW), which suspended its operations in March due to losses, Monday said its shareholders have approved a proposal not to distribute dividends for fiscal year 2010.
The decision was made Monday during the shareholders' annual general meeting that was previously deferred, the carrier, better known as Wataniya Airways, said in a statement posted on the Kuwait bourse website.
It also said that the extraordinary general meeting that was scheduled for Monday has been postponed due to lack of quorum. It didn't give additional details.
A Wataniya executive said earlier this month that the airline's resumption of its operations will depend on whether its shareholders approve a planned 15 million Kuwaiti dinars ($54.5 million) capital increase.
The carrier said in March that its 2010 full-year loss widened to nearly KWD14.1 million, from a loss of KWD10.9 million in the previous year.
Wataniya later incurred additional losses for terminating aircraft leasing agreements after it halted operations. It had also said that it had dismissed most of its 600 workers as it couldn't support personnel expenses while awaiting a decision whether to resume operations or not.
The airline had attributed the operations' suspension to unfair competition and the global financial crisis which coincided with the launch of its activities.
By Shikrallah Nakhoul, Zawya Dow Jones, +961 1 985757, shikrallah@zawya.com
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
30-05-11 1159GMT
