AIRASIA Group Bhd will complete its renounceable rights issue to its existing shareholders upon listing of its redeemable convertible unsecured Islamic debt securities (RCUIDS) and warrants on Friday (Dec 31), thus successfully raising RM974.5 mil and providing a strong injection to support the overall group fundraising strategy.
As a key component of AirAsia Group’s fund-raising initiatives, the rights issue will enable the budget carrier to support various segments of the group, including working capital and other operational costs incurred due to the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic and costs required to ramp-up operations to be prepared for the rebound of international travel, balanced with funding growth of the various airasia digital business units.
In a nutshell, the fundraising exercise entails the issuance of seven-year RCUIDS with a nominal value of 75 sen with free detachable warrants on the basis of two RCUIDS with one warrant for every six AirAsia Group shares held.
“The rights issue announced today is a key component of our overall fundraising strategy to support a strong rebound in air travel across ASEAN in 2022,” commented AirAsia Group’s CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.
“We are gradually resuming flights in all of our key markets and look forward to returning to pre-COVID levels on many of our popular routes in 2022 alongside strong vaccination rates, better testing procedures and education in all of our markets.
“It also shows continued strong investor confidence in our overall recovery strategy including digital transformation, which has already received overwhelming support to date through various fundraising initiatives.”
According to Fernandes, AirAsia Group is now an investment company with a portfolio of synergistic travel and lifestyle businesses that leverage technology to deliver the best value at the lowest cost.
“We have also transformed into a digital travel and lifestyle services group which isn’t solely reliant on airfares alone, providing a more robust and resilient model for the future,” he projected.
“ASEAN is where we have our strongest foothold with access to over 700 million people and no other brand delivers the breadth of services we do now. Over the past 18 months, we have launched many new business ventures to meet consumer demand in the burgeoning digital economy.”
Earlier this year, the group’s super app achieved unicorn status in under two years after it was valued at over US$1 bil by Credit Suisse.
“Our fintech venture BigPay raised up to US$100 mil in financing from SK Group as it continues to transform fintech interconnectivity in the region by democratising financial services, providing accessibility and inclusivity, serving the underserved just like the airline does, including SMEs and start-up businesses,” noted Fernandes.
“BigPay is now focusing on securing a bank lending licence to expand its low rate offerings.”
At the close of today’s mid-day trading, AirAsia Group was down 0.5 sen or 0.61% to 81 sen with 3.14 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM3.16 bil. – Dec 29, 2021
