KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Bhd saw its largest shareholder Tune Air Sdn Bhd selling some 8.56 million shares between April 19 and April 22. Tune Air is controlled by AirAsia group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and his long-time business partner, Datuk Kamarudin Meranun.

This was just weeks after the announcement on April 1 that Tune Live Sdn Bhd, an investment holding company owned by both Fernandes and Kamarudin, had entered into a conditional subscription agreement with AirAsia for the proposed issuance and allotment of 559 million new shares. This represents approximately 16.7% of AirAsia’s enlarged issued and paid-up share capital, and are to be issued at an issue price of RM1.84 per share.

On April 19, Tune Air disposed of 6.157 million shares when the stock was trading within the range of RM2.06 to RM2.12. The company disposed of an additional one million shares on April 20 and 21 respectively. On April 20, AirAsia was trading between RM2.13 and RM2.17, and down slightly to trade in the range of RM2.11 to RM2.15 the following day. An additional 400,000 shares were sold on April 22, with the counter trading between RM2.09 and RM2.14.

In the filing, AirAsia noted that the block of 8.55 million shares, which is equivalent to 0.307% equity stake, were disposed in favour of Datuk Abdel Aziz @ Abdul Aziz Abu Bakar, another director and shareholder of Tune Air.

Meanwhile, both Fernandes and Kamarudin have made announcements to Bursa Malaysia that they have the intention to deal in the securities of AirAsia during the closed period prior to the release of its first-quarter results for financial year 2016.

AirAsia’s share price closed at RM2.04, down 2.86% or six sen, yesterday, with 24.4 million shares traded.