Friday 29 Mar 2024
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PARIS (Nov 13): Indonesia's Lion Group is pushing forward with revived plans for a 2016 initial public offering now designed to fund an airport vital to securing its growth, Chief Executive Rusdi Kirana said.

The owner of one of the world's fastest-growing airlines, Lion Air, is also close to placing an order for Airbus A330 wide-body jets, which it plans to use for busy domestic routes as it runs short of airport slots for smaller jets.

"We are talking now with banks about an IPO and will use the money to build this hub. Now we are using our own money but hopefully by the first quarter of 2016, the company will do an IPO and will use the money partly for airport expansion," said Kirana.

He declined to say how much the company planned to raise. Privately-owned Lion has long toyed with a flotation, only to conclude it could fund some of the industry's largest plane orders from its own operations. This has changed, however, with the group's growing focus on airport projects, Kirana said.

The latest order for current-generation A330s will be placed "soon," Kirana said. He added the size of the deal had not been fixed but did not dispute a suggestion by industry sources that it could involve 7-10 jets, worth $2.5 billion at list prices.

Kirana said Lion Air would not buy more planes other than the A330s before the end of 2015, but had no plans to defer any of its existing large order book of Airbus and Boeing jets. It is no longer looking at Canada's Bombardier CSeries.

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