Audited financial statements for PNG Air (CG, Port Moresby) for 2019 and 2020 will be released after the airline's foreign debts have been restructured, the completion of which is expected by the end of August 2022, according to Acting Chief Executive Officer Stanley Stevens.
In a market announcement on July 8, 2022, Stevens said that "considerable progress has been made in finalising PNG Air's financial statements for 2019 and 2020. Unfortunately, the release of the audited financial statements for those years is further delayed, pending the completion of a restructuring of PNG Air's external debts. This restructuring will significantly improve PNG Air's financial position and will allow PNG Air to move forward with various growth initiatives."
He said PNG Air's restructuring was "well-advanced and was receiving "good co-operation from its various creditors". "PNG Air expects this exercise to be successfully completed by the end of August 2022, following which the 2019 and 2020 audited financial statements will be completed and released to the market."
"The restructuring has been necessitated by the reduction in aviation revenue associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the generally depressed state of the PNG economy," he explained.
A complication affecting the release of the 2020 financial statements has been the need for PNG Air to appoint a new auditor after its current auditor, Deloittes, had reached "the end of its maximum audit engagement".
The current suspension of PNG Air from PNG's national stock exchange PNGX is expected to be lifted once the audited financial reports are submitted for 2019 and 2020. The PNGX suspended the securities of PNG Air from official quotation on January 15, 2019, after the airline failed to lodge its periodic report for the period ending December 2017. When finalising the accounts, auditors had been concerned about shareholders' hesitance to provide financial backing or guarantees for the company. The 2018 audited accounts were also delayed as a result.
