KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Airline System (MAS) and AirAsia are poised to form a working partnership, the Edge financial newspaper reported yesterday quoting unnamed sources.
The newspaper said that state strategic investment fund Khazanah Nasional would enter as a common shareholder, buying up stakes in both MAS and AirAsia’s major shareholder, Tune Air, to facilitate the deal.
“Working together will only be realistic if there is a share swap,” a source was quoted by the paper as saying.
The deal will see Tan Sri Tony Fernandes help stop the ailing flag carrier from plunging any further into the red, industry source said.
The share swap would see Tony getting a 20 per cent stake in the national carrier. Tune Air, owned by Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, is expected to benefit most from the share swap with MAS as it holds 26.28 per cent of the budget carrier as of July 6 this year.
The budget carrier’s market capitalisation of RM11 billion (S$4.46 billion) yesterday is now two times more than MAS which stands at RM5.3 billion, a decade after Tune Air took over the two-plane operation. – Reuters/Agencies