PETALING JAYA: AirAsia Group Bhd on Thursday announced that Dr Stanley Choi Chiu Fai (pix) has joined the group as a substantial shareholder via his wholly owned entity, Positive Boom Ltd, on Feb 18, 2021.
He acquired 167.1 million AirAsia shares in the first tranche of a private placement, raising his shareholding in the group to 332.5 million shares, equating to a 8.96% stake.
Choi is the chairman of Head & Shoulders Financial Group, as well as the chairman and executive director of International Entertainment Corporation, a company listed on the main board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He is also the only co-founding member from Hong Kong for YunFeng Capital – a private equity fund started in 2010 by a group of successful entrepreneurs and influential industry leaders, named after its co-founder Jack Ma Yun, founder of Alibaba Group, and David Yu Feng, founder of Target Media.
His previous directorships include his appointment as executive director of Target Insurance (Holdings) Ltd from 2014 to 2019, director of ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co Ltd from 2013 to 2016 and executive director of Media Asia Group Holdings Ltd from 2011 to 2015.
The successful businessman possesses more than 20 years of experience in financial services and merger & acquisition (M&A) transactions, with a particular focus on private equity investment. He was a seed investor of Kidswant, a Chinese-startup that has now become a leading maternity, baby and children’s products retailer in China with a valuation of more than US$3 billion (RM12 billion).
Choi said it is his pleasure and honour to gain a substantial ownership stake in AirAsia group – one of Asia’s biggest known brands that has successfully pivoted into digital business.
“I believe the worst period in the aviation industry’s history has now passed. I am confident that air travel will bounce back and that under Tan Sri Tony Fernandes’s and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun’s leadership, and with vaccines being rolled out across the region and globally, AirAsia has a bright future ahead. I look forward to working with everyone at AirAsia.”
Choi graduated with a Master’s Degree of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, US, in 1996. In 2013, he obtained a Doctoral Degree of Business Administration from the City University of Hong Kong.
