KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Group Bhd (AABG) has received gross proceeds of US$56.83 million (RM239.98 million) from the merger of Fly Leasing Ltd (Fly Leasing) and Carlyle Aviation Partners.
Prior to the completion of the merger, AAGB held 3.33 million shares of Fly Leasing, representing approximately 10.94 per cent of common shares in the company.
The Fly Leasing shares were acquired by AirAsia on August 30, 2018, as part of a cash-in-kind consideration for the earlier divestment of its aircrafts leasing operations undertaken by Asia Aviation Capital Ltd to entities managed by BBAM Ltd Partnership.
AirAsia chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said the company's plan to raise up to RM2.5 billion ringgit through a combination of borrowing and equity raising is on track.
Fernandes said this transaction delivers a welcome boost to overall AirAsia's fundraising strategy.
"We have already raised RM336.5 million from two tranches of private placements earlier this year and continue to renegotiate leasing terms with all of our lessors.
"We have also disposed of 32.67 per cent of our interest in AirAsia India, amounting to US$37.68 million (approximately RM152.64 million), ceased operations in Japan and sold a number of spare engines amounting to over US$ 130 million," he said.
Fernandes also said there are a number of other fundraising initiatives in place to ensure sufficient liquidity for the company, which are well progressed.
"We are in the process of finalising a Danajamin Prihatin Guarantee Scheme loan, working on a data-backed loan of up to US$350 million and preparing for a rights issue of up to RM1.02 billion which has a target completion in December," he said.
AirAsia remains optimistic about its ability to not only survive the ongoing effects of the pandemic, but to return to the skies stronger than ever in the near future, he said.
"Domestic air travel is likely to gradually resume in the third quarter of 2021 and international travel should start to take flight in 2022.
"We foresee a major resurgence in air travel on the horizon due to huge pent up demand and the acceleration of vaccines, better testing, education, tracing and the push for digital health passports in all of our key markets.
"Our digital transformation strategy to become more than just an airline is gaining strong momentum across all of our non-airline businesses," he added.