Malaysian court grants AirAsia X restraining order against potential legal action

KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 (Reuters) - The Malaysian High Court on Wednesday granted budget airline AirAsia X Bhd AIRX.KL a three-month restraining order against any legal proceedings that may be filed against it, which could have slowed down its debt restructuring process.

"The restraining order allows the creditors an opportunity for amicable deliberation on the proposed debt restructuring without extraneous considerations," a filing on the bourse said.

AirAsia X, the long-haul affiliate of AirAsia Group Bhd AIRA.KL, applied for a restraining order in December, which will serve to restrain any legal proceedings to be initiated against it.

The airline has been trying for months to restructure 64.15 billion ringgit ($15.57 billion) of debt into 200 million ringgit of debt.

More than a dozen creditors have filed to intervene in its proposed court-supervised restructuring, with lessor BOC Aviation Ltd 2588.HK and airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd MAHB.KL arguing that AAX is "hopelessly insolvent". nL4N2IR2JP

The court last month ordered the airline to convene separate meetings with its different groups of creditors within six months. nL1N2KS094

($1 = 4.1190 ringgit)

(Reporting by Liz Lee; Editing by Jan Harvey)

((liz.lee@thomsonreuters.com; Desk: +60323338039; Twitter: @livinglizly;))