Tony Fernandes plans a New York listing for its low-cost AirAsia airline and a digital super app

Tony Fernandes’ Capital A group is planning New York listings for its low-cost AirAsia airline and a digital “super app”.

“If you want to be an actor, you’re probably going to want to end up in Hollywood at some stage in your career,” Tony Fernandes told. “We think the time is right for the part of Capital A group to be listed in the United States.”

Tony Fernandes said the group, which changed its name recently, had started consistence work and imagined two separate listings, one for AirAsia “sometime next year”, trailed by the purported super app, which will offer services from movement to action items.

The company, which was recently thought to be consolidating its digital businesses with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), dunked into the red during the pandemic, provoking audit firm EY in July 2020 to scrutinize its capacity to make due.

Tony Fernandes, who turned to e-commerce and digital businesses during the pandemic, said that issue had now been settled.

Capital A, formerly known as AirAsia Group, has been aggressively building its digital businesses and super app throughout recent years as a large portion of its planes were grounded because of movement limitations to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The group has would have liked to construct its super application, displaying provincial tech goliaths, for example, Grab’s and Gojek’s super apps which offer a variety of services including ride-hailing, food delivery, and payment services.

Capital A remaining parts under Practice Note 17 (PN17) on the Malaysian stock trade — a listing for groups in financial distress. Tony Fernandes, who is Capital A’s Chief Executive Officer, demanded that was a resolvable“accounting” issue, which “doesn’t reflect the fundamentals of the company”, he told.

The airline’s first-quarter losses widened by 90% contrasted and a similar period in 2021, while the group’s Malaysia-listed shares stay at a 6th of their 2018 pinnacle.

Tony Fernandes, Capital A’s chief executive, said 85 of AirAsia’s 212 aircraft were presently flying, with 80 to 90 percent load factors, and 176 aircraft will be back in the skies by December.

“I think in the third and fourth quarter, we would be ebitda-positive, including leasing, and so . . . I’m quite confident of 2023 being profitable and definitely cash flow positive,” he said.

South Korean conglomerate SK last year put $100mn in the group’s BigPay fintech business.

Remarking on the listing plans, Tony Fernandes said his progress in changing from Warner Music executive to budget aviation pioneer subsequent to purchasing AirAsia from the Malaysian government in 2001 for under $1, would ultimately influence financial investors.

“Twenty years ago, when I started this airline, no investor wanted to invest in us. It wasn’t a very convincing story to say you’re going to start up an airline when you’re from the music business, with no money, and go up against Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines and the like,” he said.

“Twenty years later, I now say I’m going to take on these digital unicorns. Probably not a convincing story either from an airline that’s struggling, going through Covid, has a weak balance sheet, etc. But it’s slowly coming.”

Tony Fernandes additionally said he saw the 100 superfast, drone-like electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) air taxis, which the group is renting from Ireland-based Avolon, improving the positive trend. Avolon trusts eVTOLs will acquire regulatory clearance by 2025.

Fernandes disregarded the idea he was overextending himself, while Dómhnal Slattery, chief executive of Avolon, cited aeronautics pioneer Wilbur Wright: “Eagles don’t soar in the calm,” he said. “They need the wind against them.”

The AirAsia super app was esteemed at around $1 billion in July last year in a deal where the digital arm of AirAsia Group will procure Gojek’s tasks in Thailand for $50 million. The buy contemplations for the proposed acquisitions will be completely fulfilled by the issue of new shares in the AirAsia super app. Gojek will claim 4.76 percent in AirAsia super app after the obtaining, the companies announced then.

On Monday, Capital A-shares were exchanging at MYR0.635 at the hour of composing, giving the group a market capitalization of MYR2.642 billion ($598.26 million).