Capital A completes sale of aviation business to AirAsia X

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia’s Capital A Bhd said it completed the sale of its short-haul aviation business to AirAsia X Bhd, as part of the restructuring of the business empire controlled by Tony Fernandes.

The move will consolidate the group’s aviation businesses under a single entity. With the sale, Capital A will focus on non-aviation business, and aims to shed the financially distressed classification it received from Malaysia’s stock exchange in 2022 in the wake of the pandemic.

As part of the transaction, AirAsia X issued 2.3 billion shares to Capital A and its entitled shareholders, Capital A it said in a stock exchange filing late on Friday (Jan 16). AirAsia X also assumed RM3.8 billion (S$1.2 billion) of debt owed by Capital A to AirAsia Bhd.

AirAsia X also sold 606.06 million shares in a private placement on Friday, to raise gross proceeds of RM1 billion, according to the filing. BLOOMBERG