AirAsia Indonesia Postpones IPO until Next Year

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The Indonesian subsidiary of Asia’s biggest budget carrier AirAsia will postpone its initial public offering (IPO) until next year due to the global economic slowdown, its spokeswoman said Monday.

The airline in March announced plans for a public listing in the final quarter of this year, hoping to raise up to $200 million. It also named CIMB Securities Indonesia and Credit Suisse Securities Indonesia as its joint-lead underwriters.

“The preparation for IPO is going well, but we decided to postpone it due to inconducive global economic conditions,” AirAsia Indonesia’s corporate communication manager Audrey Petriny told AFP.

She was unable to provide details of when the IPO would be launched next year as it would depend on “progress of the global economy”. “We want to do the initial public offering at the right time,” she said.

AirAsia Indonesia currently operates a fleet of 16 Airbus and aims to add 20 more planes by 2015. National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia in February made its debut on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, raising around 4.7 trillion rupiah ($517 million) from selling 28 percent of its total equity.

Indonesian budget airline Lion Air, which last month signed a $21 billion deal for 230 Boeing 737s with the US manufacturer, had also planned to launch an IPO in the first half of 2012. The IPOs reflect rapid change in the nation’s aviation industry, which has a history of safety problems that led the European Union to ban all Indonesian airlines from its airspace in 2007 after a series of crashes and incidents.

The Malaysia-based AirAsia opened its regional headquarters in Jakarta in October to exploit Southeast Asia’s largest market and extend its reach in the region. The airline’s 2010 full-year net profit reached 1.07 billion ringgit ($340 million), nearly double that of 2009.

However, its net profit within the third quarter of this year fell 53 percent to 152.3 million ringgit due to higher fuel prices and staff costs.