Proposal is not a merger, but disposal of assets to AirAsia X, clarifies Capital A

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 6): Capital A Bhd has clarified that the proposed plan is not a merger of AirAsia Bhd and AirAsia X Bhd, but a potential disposal of Capital A's aviation assets to AirAsia X.

The group said the exercise is aimed at forming a separate publicly quoted aviation group comprising six airlines — four short-haul Asean airlines and two medium-haul airlines, namely AirAsia, Thai AirAsia, AirAsia Indonesia, AirAsia Philippines, AirAsia X and Thai AirAsia X.

The company made the clarification in a Bursa Malaysia filing after local news outlets reported that Capital A chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes had said there would be no merger of AirAsia's aviation arm businesses into one new entity but instead all aviation operations would be injected under one existing structure.

Capital A's share price rose 1.5 sen or 2.63% to close at 58.5 sen on Tuesday (Dec 6), with a market capitalisation of RM2.43 billion.

AirAsia X's share price remained unchanged at 44.5 sen with a market capitalisation of RM182.54 million.