The Board of Directors of AirAsia has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, AAIL, and Tata Sons Private Limited, India entered into a Share Purchase Agreement to dispose of AAIL’s equity interest of 32.67% in AAI to TSL.
This brings the shareholding of AirAsia Group Berhad in AAI to 16.33%.
President (Airlines) of AirAsia Group, Bo Lingam said, “This transaction is in line with our initiatives towards reducing cash utilisation for the Group and will allow us to use cash to grow market share in our core markets in Asean, particularly in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines as well as for our future expansion into Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.
He added – “AirAsia Group has been reviewing its forward business strategy regularly, including its investment in AAI. This transaction will ensure strict cost containment for AirAsia Group in the short term, and strengthen our presence in Asean while continuing our market dominance for travel from Asean to India and North Asia.”
“India will remain an important market for AirAsia. TSL has been an excellent partner and we look forward to continue working closely together in other areas of growth,” he said.
Headquartered in Bengaluru, AAI flies to 19 domestic destinations across India with 30 Airbus A320 aircraft.
Meanwhile, international services to India from Malaysia and Thailand will resume in the future after travel restrictions are lifted and borders with India are reopened. AirAsia operates over 100 weekly flights from Malaysia and Thailand to nine destinations in India.
-AK
Arya has been a part of the Content & Research Team at Hrnxt.com. She is a keen observer of economic developments, emerging businesses, people in business and keeps a tab on latest happenings in the business environment.