Friday 10 August 2012

News Highlights - AirAsia, Axiata Group, Pos Malaysia


AirAsia Bhd (RM3.68/share)
AirAsia X to lease six Airbus A330-300s
AirAsia X, the long-haul low-fare affiliate of AirAsia Group, will lease six Airbus A330-300 aircraft from the International Lease Finance Corp (ILFC) for about US$500mil (RM1.6min). With the six leased aircraft, AirAsia X chief executive officer Azran Osman-Rani, said, the airline will have a fleet of 20 A330-300s by 2014, including 14 new orders with Airbus, which are scheduled for delivery throughout 2014. He said currently, AirAsia X has 11 aircraft, of which nine are A330s and two A340s. Out of these six leased A330s, four will be delivered in 2013 and two in 2014. On why lease the aircraft when it had already placed an order for 14 more new A330s, Azran said AirAsia X wants to be ahead of competitors. Azran expects the airline to carry up to seven million passengers by 2014, from 2.5 million who travelled with them last year.  – Business Times

Axiata Group Bhd (RM5.98/share)
Plans for RM5b Islamic bond sale
Axiata Group Bhd, Malaysia’s biggest telecommunications company by revenue, plans to set up a RM5bil (US$1.6bil) Islamic bond program to refinance debt, two people familiar with the deal said yesterday. They added that Celcom Transmission (M) Sdn Bhd, a unit of Axiata Group, will sell the notes. Celcom Transmission could start selling the sukuk as early as next week, the people said. Axiata has total outstanding debt of RM9.5bil, RM1.4bil of which is due this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The planned offering comes after the mobile-phone operator announced last month that it had received regulatory approval to start a US$1.5bil multicurrency sukuk program. – Business Times

Pos Malaysia Bhd (RM3.02/share)
In talks to buy Mideast courier
Pos Malaysia Bhd is in discussions with a company from the Middle East to buy a courier outfit to grow its business, group chief executive officer Datuk Khalid Abdol Rahman says. Khalid said Pos Malaysia was looking at several merger and acquisition (M&A) opportunities to diversify its income base. Pos Malaysia hopes to conclude the deal by the end of this year. Meanwhile, Pos Malaysia chairman Datuk Seri Mohd Khamil Jamil said it was looking at synergies that could be developed with the DRB-HICOM group of companies. DRB-HICOM Bhd is the largest shareholder of Pos Malaysia with a 32.2% stake. Mohd Khamil said Pos Malaysia was also talking to DRB-HICOM’s property division to build commercial properties on land it owns in Brickfields, Kelana Jaya and Batu Pahat in Johor, where there is currently a post office set-up. – Business Times

Source: AmeSecurities 

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