PETALING JAYA: AirAsia Group Bhd’s share price soared as much as 42 sen to trade at a high of RM3.05 this morning after it declared a special dividend of 90 sen per share for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019.
The stock opened higher at RM3.01 this morning from its last traded price of RM2.63 yesterday, and traded at a high of RM3.05 during the morning session. At 12.30pm, the stock was 22 sen higher at RM2.85 with 66.271 million shares traded.
It was the most actively traded stock and the fourth top gainer on the bourse this morning.
Yesterday, the group announced the special dividend despite a 91.6% plunge in net profit to RM96.09 million during the quarter from RM1.14 billion a year ago, due to a gain on partial disposal of a subsidiary last year.
The group said that its earnings last year included a gain on a partial disposal of a subsidiary of RM350.3 million as well as a remeasurement gain on the retained interest in a former subsidiary of RM534.7 million.
During the quarter under review, the group’s earnings were also affected by an additional charge of RM38.2 million on the adoption of MFRS 16.
Revenue for the quarter rose 12.8% to RM2.88 billion from RM2.56 billion a year ago driven by an 18% growth in total passengers carried and a higher load factor of 88%.
