PETALING JAYA: AirAsia X Bhd has announced its intention to enter into a proposed placement of shares with two institutional investors, one of them being a local institutional investor, potentially raising up to RM50 million of new capital.
Between 2020 and 2022, AirAsia X had implemented measures to address the company’s financial concerns in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, including its debt restructuring scheme and an array of corporate restructuring and cost-containment exercises.
With the continued efforts taken by the company to regularise and improve its financial condition, coupled with the scaling up of its operations after the reopening of regional borders across the world since early 2022, the company turned around its financial performance from loss-making to registering two consecutive quarters of profit for the financial periods ended Sept 30, 2022 and Dec 31, 2022, it said in a statement today.
On the back of this momentum, the proposed placement will be a timely and strategic means for the company to raise funds which will primarily be used for the reactivation and maintenance of its fleet.
This will be AirAsia X’s first equity fundraising exercise since 2015 as it continues to evaluate its operational and financial performance as well as the viability of its PN17 regularisation plan.
Proceeds from the proposed placement will serve as an interim fundraising measure to bolster short-term working capital requirements as the company continues to recover and grow its operations post-pandemic.
AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail said: “With this proposed placement, all indicators signal the company is moving into the right direction and will have a much stronger ground for its continued and concerted efforts to revitalise its business, as the industry’s recovery takes place in the near future.”
