Malaysia Airlines raises funds with $785m bond

Plan to lease eight Airbus planes, totalling $1.67b could be finalised soon Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Airlines said yesterday its 2.5 billion ringgit ($785 million) Islamic bond has been fully sold, allowing it to tap a new source of funds as it tries to recover from losses. Chief Executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said Retirement Fund, which is a Malaysian state pension fund, has bought 1 billion ringgit ($314 million) of the bonds. He said the airline has commitments for the remaining 1.5 billion ringgit ($471 million) from local financial institutions, which it expects to drawdown later this year. He declined to