The chief executive officer of AirAsia X Bhd said taking the company private is an option, after shares of the long-haul budget carrier in Tony Fernandes’s AirAsia group plunged 65 percent in the past year to become the worst-performing airline in Asia.
Sister company AirAsia Bhd is also examining that option, Benyamin Ismail said in an interview in New Delhi yesterday.
“That’s something that I’ll let shareholders comment, both of us, as an option, both companies are looking at, AirAsia Bhd, us,” said Benyamin, who was in India to announce the resumption of AirAsia X flights to New Delhi. “As a shareholder, the valuation of the company is very cheap at the moment, it’s very good to take it private.”
However, he said that there currently are no plans to take the companies private and it could be a challenge to find investors willing to do so. AirAsia did not immediately reply to an e-mail seeking comment.
AirAsia X and AirAsia Bhd became Asia’s worst-performing airline stocks in the past year after a fatal crash by an Indonesian affiliate, mounting competition and a weaker Malaysian ringgit damped investor demand. The decline was exacerbated by a GMT Research report last June questioning AirAsia’s accounting.
AirAsia X has hedged half of its oil requirements for this year at about US$60 a barrel and could hedge further if oil prices fall to about US$20 to US$25, Benyamin said.
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