AirAsia X shareholders greenlight restructuring plan

AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur Int’l) has received approval from its shareholders for its radical debt restructuring following an extraordinary general meeting on June 1, it revealed in a statement, allowing it to press ahead with its survival plan All five proposed resolutions passed with a margin of between 99.8% and 99.9%, with shareholders of the AirAsia Group low-cost long-haul carrier backing a rights issue and a share subscription for new investors to raise MYR500 million ringgit (USD121.2 million).

Specifically, shareholders voted for:

• a special resolution on the reduction of 99.9% of the issued share capital of AirAsia X (99.85% of the voting shares cast);
• an ordinary resolution on the consolidation of every ten existing ordinary shares in AirAsia X into one share (99.86%);
• an ordinary resolution on a renounceable rights issue of new shares to raise gross proceeds of up to MYR300 million (USD72.7 million) (99.9%);
• an ordinary resolution on the issuance and allotment of new shares to raise up to MYR200 million (USD48.5 million) by way of subscription (99.9%); and
• an ordinary resolution on the issuance and allotment of new shares to a special purpose vehicle (99.9%).

The meeting followed AirAsia X proposing in October the restructuring of its MYR64.15 billion (USD15.6 billion) debt into a principal amount of MYR200 million and having the rest waived. “These approvals have been obtained simultaneously with final negotiations being held with creditors,” AirAsia X claimed, adding that both it and its restructuring advisers, New York-based Seabury Capital, “have been in active and productive discussions with lessors and other creditors.” A court-convened meeting of these parties to vote on the scheme is currently scheduled for late July or August. AirAsia X concluded that it “is committed to resuming commercial operations as soon as possible on the successful completion of the restructuring plan and the opening of international borders.”