KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 14): AirAsia Group Bhd said on Thursday (Oct 14) the company has renamed its 100%-owned subsidiary AirAsia Investment Ltd to AirAsia Aviation Ltd in a corporate reorganisation to create a clear distinction between AirAsia Group’s airline and digital businesses.
In a statement to Bursa Malaysia, AirAsia Group said Bo Lingam, formerly president (airlines) for AirAsia Group, takes over as group CEO of AirAsia Aviation to oversee the group's four airlines, namely AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Philippines, AirAsia Thailand and AirAsia Indonesia.
"As AirAsia’s rapid transformation from an airline into a digital travel and lifestyle services group continues to gain strong momentum, the holding company for the airline group has been officially renamed AirAsia Aviation Ltd,” AirAsia Group said.
Bo said in the statement: “This structural change helps facilitate strong projected growth in both airline and non-airline portfolio businesses.”
AirAsia Group’s statement on Thursday follows a Tuesday (Oct 12) statement in which its group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said the budget airline's digital businesses, which have a valuation of over US$1 billion (about RM4.16 billion), have achieved unicorn status in record time at under two years since the group accelerated the growth momentum of its non-airline businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic-driven aviation sector downturn.
Fernandes said AirAsia Group should no longer be known as just an airline.
In start-up funding terminology, the term "unicorn" refers to a private company which has achieved a valuation of US$1 billion.
According to AirAsia Group's corporate structure, the group's digital businesses are undertaken via 100%-owned subsidiary AirAsia Digital Sdn Bhd.
AirAsia Digital's directly-owned subsidiaries comprise 100%-owned AirAsia Data Sdn Bhd and AirAsia Superapp Sdn Bhd besides 99.56%-owned Big Pay Pte Ltd and 82.17%-owned Teleport Everywhere Pte Ltd.
At Bursa's 12.30pm break on Thursday, AirAsia Group's share price settled down four sen or 3.31% at RM1.17 for a market value of about RM4.46 billion.
AirAsia Group has 3.81 billion issued shares.