AIRASIA X Bhd has revealed that creditors in each of the three classes of its scheme of arrangement (SOA) meetings today have voted to support the SOA with the following majority:
- Class A: 100.0%
- Class B: 97.6%
- Class C: 100.0%
Across all three classes, 99% of all creditors voted in favour of the scheme.
The budget carrier and sister airline to AirAsia Group Bhd further noted that the overwhelming and near unanimous support will be presented for court sanction in the coming weeks.
Once approved, the airline will embark on its recapitalisation which was approved by its shareholders in June 2021. Completion is expected in 1Q 2022 after which the airline is poised to compete very effectively in the markets where it will operate.
AirAsia X recalled that when the scheme was initially announced in October, it was comprehensively rejected and widely derided as being wholly inadequate and unreasonable.
However, through a process of many transparent discussions on its business plan and alignment of common business interests, all major creditors have agreed that the combined interests of the various groups of stakeholders are best served by allowing the airline to proceed with the scheme intact and without substantial changes to what was initially presented.
With the completion of this exercise, AirAsia X will be one of very few airlines worldwide that has no gearing and a restructured cost base that is significantly below that of its competitors in the region and will be in an excellent position to capture leisure travel and cargo opportunities post-pandemic.
AirAsia X also took a swipe at several local aviation pundits who have continued aggressively to advocate a liquidation of AirAsia arguing without basis that the airline is moribund, terminally ill and with no valid reason not to be liquidated.
“Air Asia X welcomes a dialogue with these experts and to be given an opportunity to update them on developments in a rapidly changing global aviation business and to provide them a better understanding of Malaysian restructuring laws for a more informed appreciation of how and why the restructuring scheme was framed in the manner and structure it was,” it pointed out.
Meanwhile, AirAsia X’s co-founder and director Tan Sri Tony Fernandes assured all passengers affected by the restructuring that it is the firm intention of AirAsia X to put in place travelling privileges in the form of travel credits which can be utilised for future purchases of flight tickets once international borders reopen.
The airline was advised by Foong and Partners, Mercury Securities, Gopal Sreenevasan, Suhendran Sockanathan and Simon Hong. New York based Seabury Securities and the Singapore office of Bird and Bird provided specialist aviation restructuring and legal support required to successfully complete the scheme of arrangement. – Nov 12, 2021
