Not interested: AirAsia denies takeover talks

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

The founder and chief executive of Malaysian airline AirAsia has dismissed recent reports suggesting it is considering making a bid for struggling Japanese firm Skymark Airlines.

The founder and chief executive of Malaysian airline AirAsia has dismissed recent reports suggesting it is considering making a bid for struggling Japanese firm Skymark Airlines.

“Never seen such rubbish. AirAsia has no interest in Skymark in Japan. There have been no discussions with Skymark. We focused on new airline,” Tony Fernandes said on his Twitter feed.

Mr Fernandes revealed his firm was planning to collaborate with Japan’s biggest online retailer, Rakuten Inc, and other businesses to launch its own low-cost airline in the country – its second attempt to break into the Japanese market.

In a separate statement, AirAsia reiterated Mr Fernandes’ response, adding: “We dismiss the speculation as just another industry rumour.” Skymark also denies the reports that it has been approached by the Malaysian firm.

Japan-based Nikkei Business Daily claimed AirAsia was talking to several different financial institutions to discuss a possible offer to buy Skymark. The news caused shares in the Japanese firm to swell by 28 per cent.

Last month, Skymark warned shareholders it may not be able to continue trading if it has to pay penalties to Airbus as a result of failing to carry out an order it made for six A380 superjumbo planes. The deal fell through when the airline was unable to secure financing for the expansion and it now claims Airbus is stipulating it pay “an extraordinary amount of compensation”.

Despite the Japanese’ firm’s denial of a takeover, it shares still shot up, taking the price of each to Y230 (£1.34), meaning the company is valued at $205 million (£122.7 million). If AirAsia is indeed not interested in buying Skymark, other airlines may jump at the chance to purchase the firm, as it has 36 spaces at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.

However, Goldman Sachs analyst Kenya Moriuchi believes there is a slim chance of a takeover while Skymark is financially viable, as regulations suggests the airport slots are not likely to be transferred to a new owner of the Japanese airline.

“As long as there is uncertainty over how those slots would be distributed, it’s difficult to imagine that AirAsia would push through with this,” he wrote.

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Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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