KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 19): AirAsia X Bhd’s non-executive director and former New Straits Times group editor-in-chief Datuk Seri Kalimullah Masheerul has sold 4.61 million shares in the loss-making long haul budget carrier, which amounted to 0.19% of AirAsia X’s share base.

A filing with Bursa Malaysia by AirAsia X (fundamental: 0; valuation: 0.3) showed Kalimullah had on Jan 15, sold 3.39 million shares at 67.8 sen apiece. The remaining 1.21 million AirAsia X shares were sold the following day, at 66.4 sen per share.

Kalimullah now directly holds 103.33 million AirAsia X shares, equivalent to a 4.36% stake in the group.

AirAsia X shares gained 2.5 sen or 3.85% to close at 67.5 sen today, with a market capitalisation of RM1.54 billion. Trade volume for the day was 3.52 million.

The long haul low-cost carrier has been bleeding losses for most of the time, since being listed. However, The Edge weekly reported last month (December 2014) that AirAsia X and sister company AirAsia Bhd will consolidate their operations to cut costs, wherever possible.

(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.)