KUALA LUMPUR (Mar 20): AirAsia Bhd group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said the initial public offering (IPO) of the low cost carrier’s Phillipines and India units will be done in 2018.

In a tweet this morning, Fernandes said he was “Super bullish on both.”

Fernandes tweeted from the CreditSuisse investment forum in Hong Kong and said “great few days at @csapac @CreditSuisse . Investors really getting the story.”

Last October, it was reported that the Philippines unit of AirAsia is seeking to raise up to US$250 million via an IPO in mid-2018 to fund its expansion programme.

Meanwhile, AirAsia Bhd and Tata Sons own 49% each in AirAsia India.

The rest is owned by Chairman S. Ramadorai and director R. Venkataramanan.

Earlier today Fernandes had said dialogues with key Asean leaders and the Australian Prime Minister in Sydney bode well for the low cost carrier.

In a twitter message from his handle @tonyfernandes, he said “Great dialogues in Sydney with all the key asean leaders and Australian prime minister which bodes well for Airasia.”

He also said “Looking forward to presenting our story for 2018. So much positive news. The journey is just beginning. Great first quarter.”

Meanwhile, Reuters reported Fernandes as saying that AirAsia is in talks with a potential partner to open an airline serving Myanmar, in a move that would help the low-cost carrier cover up to 95 per cent of the Southeast Asian travel market.

In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Fernandes said he also expected AirAsia’s Vietnam joint venture to be flying by October.

At 9.22am today, AirAsia slipped 0.97% or 4 sen to RM4.08 with 393,400 shares traded.