AirAsia Group which held 3,333,333 common shares of Fly Leasing, received RM239 million from a merger exercise between Fly Leasing and Carlyle Aviation Partners.
The Fly Leasing shares were acquired by AirAsia back in 2018 as part of a cash-in-kind consideration for its earlier divestment of aircrafts leasing operations undertaken by Asia Aviation Capital Limited to entities managed by BBAM Limited Partnership.
This latest proceed will add to the groups fund raising activity, Group CEO Tony Fernandes has iterated that the company plans to raise up to RM2.5 billion ringgit through a combination of borrowing and equity raising.
AirAsia has so far raised RM 336.5 million from two tranches of private placements this year and continue to renegotiate leasing terms with all of its lessors. Since the pandemic the group disposed 32.67% of its interest in AirAsia India for approximately RM152.64 million, ceased operations in Japan and sold a number of spare engines amounting to over RM520 million.
There are a number of other fundraising initiatives in place to ensure sufficient liquidity for the Group, which are well progressed. We are in the process of finalising a Danajamin PRIHATIN Guarantee Scheme loan, working on a data backed loan of up to USD350 million and preparing for a rights issue of up to RM1.02 billion which has a target completion in December.
Domestic air travel is likely to gradually resume in the third quarter 2021 and international travel should start to take flight in 2022. AirAsia is optimistic and foresees major resurgence in air travel as a combination of pent up demand and vaccination ramping could open the skies once again.
