Singapore Airlines extends Tigerair delist offer to Jan 8

[SINGAPORE] Singapore Airlines Ltd is extending by more than a week the deadline to buy out all the the shares in Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd, the unprofitable budget airline it listed less than six years ago.

Shareholders of Tiger Airways will now have until Jan 8 to decide whether to accept Singapore Air's offer to pay S$0.41 a share, Singapore Air said Monday in a statement to the Singapore stock exchange, without further details. The decision comes after the Securities Investors Association Singapore asked the airline's board to consider extending the Dec 28 deadline and also consider improving the offer price.

Singapore Air is seeking to delist Tiger Airways after it made losses in five of the past six quarters because of over-expansion in a competitive market that has caused other airlines to privatize or collapse. Southeast Asia's largest carrier, which owns 55.8 per cent of Tiger Airways, said in November that it will also offer shareholders of the budget carrier an option to buy Singapore Air shares at S$11.1043 each.

Shares of Singapore Air rose 0.6 per cent to close at S$11.12 in the city state. Tiger Airways was unchanged at S$0.405.  Singapore Air injected funds into Tiger Airways last year by increasing its stake to include the budget carrier as a subsidiary. Tiger Airways has reduced capacity, cut routes and ended partnerships in Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines to curb losses.

Tiger Airways reported a loss of S$12.8 million in the three months ended September, down from S$182.4 million a year earlier.

BLOOMBERG