KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 9): AirAsia Bhd jumped 4.46% after the group's planned reorganisation via a share exchange between AirAsia Bhd and AirAsia Group Bhd (AAGB), obtained its shareholders’ approval.

At 3.05pm, the counter was up 15 sen or 4.18% at RM3.74 after some 13.7 million shares exchanged hands. The stock had earlier gained as much as 4.46% to touch an all-time high of RM3.75.

At an extraordinary general meeting on Monday (Jan 8), its shareholders unanimously approved the resolution for the reorganisation of the group through a one-for-one share swap deal.

AAGB will assume the listing status of AirAsia Bhd as an investment holding entity by March this year, while the latter will focus on its airline operations.

AirAsia’s other operations in Southeast Asia will be housed under AAGB as well, as founder and group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said analysts were currently not ascribing value to its operations in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

He added that the group may relist its Malaysian operations later, to unlock value in the asset.

Fernandes said the listing of the Malaysian operations opens an avenue for investors to choose between exposure to the group’s overall risk or limit their exposure to the Malaysian operations.

“There is nothing to prevent us from listing some shareholdings in AirAsia Bhd [in the future]. What we are creating now is a vehicle (AAG) where some people may want [exposure to] the Malaysian risk or some people may want [exposure to] the group’s risk,” he said yesterday.