AirAsia to appoint advisers to evaluate offer for aircraft leasing arm

SHAH ALAM: AirAsia Bhd is appointing advisers, including two or three banks, to evaluate the US$1 billion (RM4.1 billion) offer it has received for its aircraft leasing company, Asia Aviation Capital Ltd (AAC).
“We’re about to appoint advisers to evaluate it and make presentations to the board. Whether we do a full sale or partial sale ... that’s up to the board to decide,” AirAsia group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes told reporters after the inauguration of a US$10 million-US$11 million flight simulator at the Asian Aviation Centre of Excellence (AACE) training centre in Glenmarie here last Friday.
He said there has been significant interest in AAC and the main thing is to strengthen its management team. “We’ve found a CEO and a CFO,” he said, adding that it will be announcing the news soon.
Fernandes said AAC’s business is growing rapidly and the team is competing with established leasing companies to get third party airline deals.
“AAC is becoming an independent lessor,” he added.
AAC made its first lease outside the group to Pakistan International Airlines recently.
Headquarted in Labuan, AAC is less than two years old. It owns and oversees aircraft leasing arrangements for its affiliate airlines such as Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia.
Earlier, AACE, a joint venture between AirAsia and aviation training provider CAE, inaugurated an A330 CAE 7000XR Series full-flight simulator. The new simulator brings the number of full-flight simulators at all AACE centres, including those in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, to 12.
AACE supports pilot training needs of over 35 airline customers through the delivery training courses including type-rating on Airbus A320, A330 and Boeing 737NG platforms.