AirAsia Philippines said Wednesday it plans to go public by listing in the Philippine Stock Exchange within the next 12 months to support its expansion.
“I think rather than take an individual shareholder, we are exploring having a direct listing in the Philippines Stock Exchange. So we might be looking at selling 20 percent to 30 percent, “AirAsia Group chief executive Tony Fernandes told reporters in a virtual briefing.
“So we’ve been talking about it for a while, about listing in the Philippines. I think we had ownership problems, and now we own 100 percent. We’re in a much clearer state. We also wanted to clean up PN 17 and all these other issues,” he said.
Fernandes did not disclose the target capital raising, he said valuation discussions with investment banks are underway.
He said the airline would use the proceeds from the IPO for expansion, particularly in acquiring more aircraft.
“We’ve been tight on cash right? I mean it’s no secret that COVID hit us hard. We survived, and so now we’re going back to growth,” Fernades said.
AirAsia Philippines previously announced plans in 2019 to raise $200 million through an IPO.
Fernandes said AirAsia is building Manila into a hub between Southeast Asia and the US, using its proximity to China, Japan and South Korea.
“Manila should become our hub for ASEAN to the west and east coast of America. So, we are kind of working towards building Kuala Lumpur and other hubs in ASEAN to build a kind of Doha and Dubai in this part of the world,” he said.
“And we’ve now got the right fleet with the A321, XLR and A330s that would enable us to build a very exciting network, which includes the Philippines,” Fernandes said.
He said the AirAsia Group would pursue a strategy that diversifies its hubs, rather than relying on a single central location.
“Obviously Kuala Lumpur will probably be the biggest hub, but Bangkok and Manila will be also very important for us. So we will have a slight advantage over Dubai and Doha by having a multi-hub strategy. And geographically, Philippines really suits beautifully,” Fernades said.
“So my vision is that even Japanese Koreans and Chinese would fly down to Manila and use us to the west coast of America and east coast of America and other parts. Eventually, Latin America. Right now, we’re covering Asia and we are about to start Europe,” he said.
Fernandes said of the 14 aircraft that AirAsia would acquire, three to four Airbus A320neos would be deployed to the Philippines.
“We are very committed to the Philippines. We’re going to have a mixture of domestic, but mostly international expansion. That’s where I’ll strengthen and we’ll give Filipinos a choice as opposed to just having one airline there or two,” he said.
AirAsia Philippines flies to 12 domestic destinations and 13 international destinations. It was launched as the fourth Airline Operations Center (AOC) of the AirAsia group in 2012.