Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (May 19): Budget airline AirAsia Bhd denied today that it was in talks to sell a minority stake in its loyalty programme joint venture (JV) to private equity firms.

In a statement, AirAsia chief executive officer Aireen Omar said the group is not selling its stake in AirAsia BIG loyalty programme, which has over 13 million members and is growing at a rate of 150,000 new members a month.

"Our AirAsia BIG loyalty programme has tremendous potential for growth — leaps and bounds beyond where it is today,” she said.
 
“With an expanding range of partners and rewards, driven by an enthusiastic and passionate team, we expect AirAsia BIG to grow their membership to over 20 million in four to five years, so no, we are not selling,” she added.

Aireen was responding to a Reuters report which cited people familiar with the matter as saying AirAsia (fundamental: 0.2; valuation: 0.8) was in talks to sell a minority stake in AirAsia BIG to private equity firms, in a deal that could value the business at about US$330 million.

The report added that AirAsia BIG could raise about US$100 million by selling approximately a 30% stake.

It went on to say the deal was expected to close in a few months, although the talks were currently at an early stage, and the value and stake were subject to change.

Think BIG Digital Sdn Bhd, which owns and manages the BIG loyalty programme, is a JV between AirAsia, Tune Money International Sdn Bhd and Canada-based Aimia Inc.

AirAsia shares closed 2.19% or 5 sen lower at RM2.23 today, with 12.6 million shares traded, for a market capitalisation of RM6.206 billion.
 
(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations)

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