Shares of regional budget airline AirAsia Bhd yesterday plunged after chief executive officer (CEO) Tony Fernandes apologized for supporting former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak in a historic election last week that ended with a victory for a four-party alliance led by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
The upset brought Malaysia’s first change of government since it gained independence from Britain in 1957.
Fernandes has praised Najib’s coalition in a video released ahead of the polls.
Photo: Reuters
He was also pictured with Najib in an AirAsia plane emblazoned with the coalition’s campaign slogan and with the cabin crew’s signature red uniform changed into the coalition’s deep blue.
Fernandes on Sunday apologized for “buckling” under government pressure.
He said he has been asked to remove former Malaysian minister of trade Rafidah Aziz, who has openly supporter Mahathir, as chairman of his long-haul budget unit AirAsia X and also cancel extra flights at low fares ahead of the polls.
He said he was part of a highly regulated industry, where nearly everything requires government approval, and was foolish to think that his endorsement would appease the Malaysian government and protect jobs.
“Under the intense pressure, I buckled. It wasn’t right; I will forever regret it,” Fernandes said. “It is still the happiest moment of my life that we have a new Malaysia that will give everyone an amazing chance to reach the skies.”
AirAsia stocks fell as much as 13 percent from their last traded price on Tuesday last week before market holidays during and after the Wednesday last week election.
They recovered some of that lost ground by noon yesterday, trading at 3.55 ringgit, down 4 percent from Tuesday last week’s close.
The benchmark index also rebounded after opening lower, gaining 0.4 percent, while the Malaysian ringgit dipped in a knee-jerk reaction to uncertainties over the change in government.
The US dollar was trading at 3.95 ringgit as of noon yesterday after climbing as high as 4.05 ringgit.
Mahathir has inherited a robust economy that grew at a three-year high of 5.9 percent last year, but some are worried over his government’s pledges to abolish an unpopular 6 percent goods and services tax, revive fuel subsidies and review big projects linked to China’s regional infrastructure initiative.
Mahathir has moved swiftly by naming Lim Guan Eng, a trained accountant who helmed the small, but wealthy state of Penang for a decade, as minister of finance and set up a special five-member economic council that include a renowned former central bank governor and Hong Kong-based billionaire tycoon Robert Kuok (郭鶴年), Malaysia’s richest man.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS