Tony Fernandes has dumped AirAsia: Time for fans to face misplaced devotion

In all of the reporting and fashion magazine like chatter about the AirAsia-MAS share swap there seems to have been a willful ignorance of one facet of the deal: That Tony Fernandes, CEO, major shareholder and founder of AirAsia, has sold 10% of his 26% shareholding in AirAsia for a stake in AirAsia's competitor , MAS.

This is a sale by an insiders insider, but it seems that local and foreign media as well as a number of analysts, like jilted lovers unable to face rejection, are doing all they can to skirt around the issue, clinging to the hope that Tony still loves them and AirAsia. Fortunately for Tony these are the types who would actually believe it when told "Of course I will still respect you in the morning".



According to THE STAR:

Put differently Tony's investment in MAS has grown while that of Khazanah's in the LCC, to date, is unfortunately in the red. The deal's backers staunchly dismiss such short-sightedness: “We are talking about loose change here. What's the point of arguing over that when there's so much more money to be made down the road.”

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/8/13/business/9276350&sec=business



So, if about RM 260 million in gains realized so far on the share swap (see calculations below) is "small change", and " there's so much more money to be made down the road”; then why is not Tony keeping his AirAsia stock?



The so-called multi-billionaire could easily borrow against his AirAsia shareholding and the MAS stock to pay for the latter.That way he gets to keep all the benefit of

"so much more money to be made down the road.”

There may also be tax benefits in using debt, an issue that surely a multi-billionaire would be concerned with.



Indeed, taking on debt is exactly hat he appears to be doing in regards to his investments in his Lotus Team and other related companies,and more recently in his reported purchase of the Queens Park Rangers football team,at a price tag rumoured to be STG 100 million( about RM 488 million).

(see http://billionaires.forbes.com/article/01iO3Qh6hq6Ec?q=Lakshmi+Mittal)

Clearly, Tony believes more in Lotus and QPR than he does AirAsia.

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By Thursday 10 August 2011 the spread between MAS and AirAsia share prices had widened giving Tony a gain of RM RM 261 971 170!

Calculations were based on the pre-suspension closing price of RM 3.95 for AirAsia and RM 1.60 for MAS.The closing prices on Thursday 10 August 2011 were RM 3.50 and RM 1.80 respectively,

The workings are as follows:



AirAsia shares sold by Tony to Khazanah =277,650,600

Loss on shares to Khazanah, and gain to Tony =RM 124 942 770



MAS shares sold by Khazanah to Tony= 685,142,000



Gain on shares to Tony, and loss to Khazanah= RM 137 028 400



NET GAIN TO TONY: RM 261 971 170

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