KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 27): AirAsia Group Bhd's RM974.5 million cash call received valid acceptances for 1.11 billion or 85.13% of the total available redeemable convertible unsecured Islamic debt securities (RCUIDS) at a nominal value of 75 sen apiece.

In a bourse filing on Monday (Dec 27), AirAsia said it had received a total of 1.11 billion in valid acceptances and excess applications for its RCUIDS as at 5pm last Monday (Dec 20).

The filing revealed that there were 193.2 million RCUIDS or 14.87% of the total available RCUIDS that were not subscribed by its entitled shareholders.

The aviation group added that the total number of excess RCUIDS available for allocation was 281.76 million.

“In view that the total number of excess RCUIDS applied for was 88,553,443, the Board has decided to allot the excess RCUIDS to all entitled shareholders and/or their renouncee(s) or transferee(s) who have applied for the excess RCUIDS in full,” the filing said.

Meanwhile a total of 193.2 million unsubscribed RCUIDS will be fully subscribed by its joint underwriters, RHB Investment Bank and Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad, based on the underwriting agreement signed between AirAsia and the banks on Nov 18.

AirAsia’s two largest shareholders Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun via their 50-50 jointly-owned special purpose vehicle Sky Accord Sdn Bhd (SASB) have also fully subscribed to 343.03 million RCUIDS, representing 26.40% of the total RCUIDS available for subscription.

Successful applicants of the RCUIS will also get one warrant for every two RCUIDS that they subscribed to.

The RCUIDS and warrants are expected to be listed and quoted on Bursa Malaysia’s Main Market on Friday (Dec 31), the filing showed.

This closing for acceptance of the RCUIDS would net AirAsia approximately RM829.61 million based on 75 sen per RCUIDS for 1.11 billion RCUIDS, based on a back-of-the-envelope calculation.

The RCUIDS issuance, coupled with other fundraising activities that was taken by the aviation group such as the RM500 million Danajamin-guaranteed loan secured in October, as well as a private placement of 470.21 million shares which raised RM336.46 million in March, would see the aviation group raise around RM1.67 billion.

AirAsia had planned to raise between RM2 billion and RM2.5 billion via a combination of equity and debt to finance, among others, working capital requirements of the group.

For the six months ended June 30, 2021, AirAsia managed to narrow its losses to RM1.35 billion from RM1.8 billion a year earlier, while revenue shrank to RM686.82 million from RM2.49 billion. Its cash balance meanwhile dwindled to RM235.61 million from RM996.12 million.

AirAsia shares were flat at 81.5 sen on Monday, giving the aviation group a market capitalisation of RM3.16 billion.