KUALA LUMPUR: THE final bids for the sale of Asia Aviation Capital Ltd (AAC) worth US$1.2 billion (RM5.31 billion) were closed on March 27 without any announcements made by its parent company, AirAsia Group.
There were interests from several parties, particularly from North Asia, but no deal has been struck yet as of Friday.
“I understand there has not been any buying into AAC as yet, but lots of rumours floating around,” sources told NST Business.
News of AAC’s potential deal came into the limelight last week as Reuters reported that a privately-owned Korea Transportation Asset Management (Kotam) would acquire AAC.
Should the deal materialise, it would pave the way for South Korea to enter the US$256 billion global aircraft leasing business.
It was believed that AirAsia and Kotam were in the final stages of negotiating the sale deal, Reuters reported.
At the same time, it is also believed that AAC has garnered buying interests from several China-based companies.
AirAsia Group chief executive officer and co-founder Tan Sri Tony Fernandes declined to comment on the Kotam discussions when contacted last week.
However, he said in February that AirAsia planned to monetise its non-core assets by this year. The assets include AAC and AirAsia’s training centre, AirAsia Aviation Centre of Excellence.
CIMB Research had said in its research report recently that the sale of AAC was moving towards completion as the final bids for the aircraft leasing company were due last Monday.
The bank-backed research firm also said AirAsia would call for an extraordinary general meeting in the second quarter of this year to announce the final buyer and possibly declare special dividends.
AirAsia’s share price had risen nine per cent since the news of Kotam’s interest in buying AAC was reported on March 24.
The budget airline’s share price closed at RM3.14 on Bursa Malaysia on Friday.