Malaysia's AirAsia is looking to list its Indonesia operations by the first quarter of next year as it moves its regional base to southeast Asia's largest economy to focus on further expansion, said its co-founder.
The initial public offering will follow its planned listing of the group's long haul unit AirAsia X, which is expected to happen some time between October and November this year, AirAsia's group chief executive Tony Fernandes said on Monday.
"No banks have been mandated yet though," he told some reporters after a press conference. "It's up to the board to decide."
AirAsia's IPOs plan comes at a time when Fernandes is stepping down as the CEO of the Malaysian listed airline to focus on regional growth through Indonesia.
"The enormous potential in an underserved market of 3 billion people spread across Asean, Northeast Asia and South Asia offers huge opportunities and AirAsia, we are convinced, is ideally positioned to reap huge dividends by serving this market," Fernandes said.
He will be replaced as Malaysian CEO by Aireen Omar, currently AirAsia's regional head of corporate finance and treasury, from next month.
AirAsia holds a 49 percent stake in Indonesia AirAsia, which operates 17 Airbus A320 aircraft and flies to six cities in Indonesia, four others in Southeast Asia and one Australia, according to AirAsia's 2011 annual report.
It listed its Thailand operations via Asia Aviation in the Thai market in May in deal that raised THB4.5 billion baht (USD$143 million) to further fund its fleet expansion.
