Backhand slap on shameless super-dramatic salesman

Malaysia Airports strikes back at AirAsia Supremo Tony Fernandes for his outrageous twitter messages taking potshots against GLCs Malaysia Airlines and Malaysia Airports, with manipulated market-talk, gross misinformation and distortion of stories.

The Star:

Published: Friday February 21, 2014 MYT 4:47:00 PM
Updated: Friday February 21, 2014 MYT 5:31:24 PM

MAHB: AirAsia received most incentives over 10 yrs (Update)

BY JOSEPH CHIN

Responding to comments by AirAsia boss Tan Sri Tony Fernandes that Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) had to start churning profits to avoid burdening taxpayers, MAHB says it has remained profitable over the last 15 years, and points out that AirAsia itself has been a beneficiary of its strong financial performance.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), responding to comments by Tan Sri Tony Fernandes that MAS and MAHB were burdening taxpayers, said AirAsia Bhd had received the most incentives over the last 10 years, pointing out that MAHB had even introduced an incentive programme to support the low-cost carrier’s growth.

In a statement issued on Friday to clarify comments made by the AirAsia boss, it said since 2002, AirAsia has been a beneficiary of MAHB’s strong financial performance.

“It (AirAsia) has received the most incentives over the last 10 years from MAHB despite it not being the airline that contributed the highest number of passengers or revenue.

“MAHB had specifically introduced an incentive programme to support the growth of AirAsia at its infancy stage. This had facilitated AirAsia’s growth to become the successful airline that it is today,” it said.

Below is the statement issued by MAHB:

MAHB clarifies on Tony Fernandes‘s statement

SEPANG: We refer to the following statements made by Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, CEO of Air Asia Group, reported in Malaysian Insider and Malaysia Kini on 19 February 2014, as well as in other media:-

1. “…… Fernandes said that MAS and Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB)have to start churning profits to avoid burdening taxpayers.”

2. “Fernandes, meanwhile, criticised MAS and MAHB’s continued spending and losses.”

3. “It’s supposed to be profit-making. This just hurts decent players in the business when they’re spending like there’s no tomorrow,” said Fernandes. “

This has resulted in several enquiries being directed to MAHB especially by the shareholders. While it is not MAHB’s policy to comment on statements made by our partners but in this case we had been advised that as a public listed company, we need to correct the information related to MAHB.

MAHB wishes to clarify that since it was incorporated 22 years ago, its financial performance has been showing consistent profits yearly.

Over the last 15 years since being public listed, MAHB has continually paid the concession fees and taxes to the government, issued dividends to shareholders, paid incentives to airlines, and remained profitable.

Since 2002, AirAsia has been a beneficiary of MAHB’s strong financial performance as it has received the most incentives over the last 10 years from MAHB, despite it not being the airline that contributed the highest number of passengers or revenue.

MAHB had specifically introduced an incentive programme to support the growth of AirAsia, at its infancy stage. This had facilitated AirAsia’s growth to become the successful airline that it is today.

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The statement by Malaysia Airports against Tony Fernandes is the most stiff, considering that he has been pasinting the picture the GLC as an ‘Evil corporate body, out to make profit from the misery of common passengers’. He even attempted to get AirAsia passengers to ‘revolt’ against Malaysia Airports, in the ‘Airport Spring’ attempt.

 Fernandes used the opportunity of these really low-blow cheap shots based on skewed stories when Malaysia Airlines announced the YE 2013 unaudited financial results three days ago. A RM1.17 billion loss was recorded for the year.

‘Airport Spring’: Fernandes’s morbid attempt for passengers ‘uprising’ against MAHB, December 2011

What the founder of the low class carrier purposely did not state is that the bulk  Malaysia Airlines’s loss is attributable to non cash big ticket items such as depreciation and forex. He also would never admit that Malaysia Airlines have better standing in the terms of net assets, cash position and borrowings over shareholders’ equity compared to his own low class carrier group.

Malaysian public must be reminded that Fernandes’s past twelve years in low class carrier business had been on series of drama, deception, failed deals and summonses by civil aviation and regulatory authorities which include Malaysia, Australia and the Philippines.

His gross over salesmanship and corporate drama which never materialised include the acquisition of Batavia Air, the failed AirAsia Japan JV with All Nippon Airways and the more recent controversies of AirAsia India. That is not withstanding the drama of “Moving operations to Jakarta”.

Bloomberg story two years ago:

AirAsia’s Fernandes to Move to Jakarta as Airline Expands

By Chong Pooi Koon and Andrea Rothman  May 25, 2012 6:45 PM GMT+0800

 

AirAsia (AIRA) Bhd. Chief Executive Officer Tony Fernandes, one of Malaysia’s most successful businessmen, said he’s moving to live in Jakarta to help accelerate the regional expansion of Asia’s biggest budget carrier.

Fernandes has steered AirAsia’s growth from a two-plane operation to 110 aircraft in just over a decade, overtaking Malaysian Airline Systems Bhd. (MAS) as the country’s largest carrier by market value. He’ll move to live in the Indonesian capital in about two weeks where the group is setting up a regional office, while keeping Malaysia as its headquarters.

“Part of AirAsia’s success might require him to move away from the epicenter in Malaysia so that he can see the woods instead of the tree,” said Gerald Ambrose, who oversees 5.4 billion ringgit ($1.7 billion) in assets as managing director of Aberdeen Asset Management Sdn. in Kuala Lumpur.

The carrier has grown from its Malaysian roots to establish budget spin-offs in countries includingIndonesia, Thailand and most recently the Philippines and Japan. Fernandes wants to form similar airline partnerships in South Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East.

“I get over-involved in the Malaysian operation,” Fernandes told reporters in Toulouse, southern France, where he was taking delivery of the airline’s 100th Airbus SAS A320 plane. “I should also be looking at Japan, Indonesia.”

About 20 AirAsia head office staff are moving to join him and help with regional strategy, Fernandes said.

More Planes

The group placed an order last year for 200 advanced A320neo planes to facilitate route expansion. It’s considering additional orders for Airbus single-aisle jets, he said.

AirAsia rose 4.1 percent to close at 3.60 ringgit in Kuala Lumpur today after news of its potential fleet expansion. The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index gained 0.2 percent.

The parent of AirAsia’s Thai unit is slated to list shares in Bangkok this month. The airline’s Indonesian venture is also planning an initial public offering this year, it said last year.

Fernandes’s decision to move comes as AirAsia and Malaysian Air’s biggest shareholders this month unwound a share swap following protests by the national carrier’s biggest union.

He has had a “rough ride here in the past three months in the uncertainty with Malaysian Air,” Ambrose said. “He might think he wants to stand back and focus on the business.”

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Fernandes should be reprimanded for all these. It is morally and probably legally wrong that Malaysians be hoodwinked by this shameless man, over and over again. The dishonour is overbearing.

The Sun story:

Tony Fernandes named Malaysia’s Best CEO

Posted on 5 April 2012 – 09:50pm

PETALING JAYA (April 5, 2012): AirAsia Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes recently bagged the Best CEO for Malaysia award at the Second Asian Excellence Recognition Awards ceremony organised by Corporate Governance Asia in Hong Kong.

“The award recognises his achievement in being a revolutionary force in the aviation industry. He is often acknowledged for his influential actions for directly shaping the way the aviation industry has evolved,” said AirAsia in a statement yesterday.

Besides Fernandes’ personal award, budget-carrier AirAsia also bagged an award at the event for Best Investor Relations Company for Malaysia while its investor relations manager Benyamin Ismail was named the Best Investor Relations Officer for Malaysia.

“It’s truly an honour for us to be recognised, for two consecutive years, as Malaysia’s finest at the awards. 2012 is indeed a great year for us, with multiple awards in the bag and most significantly, the launch of AirAsia Philippines’ maiden flights recently to Davao and Kalibo,” said Fernandes in the statement.

“We are also looking forward to the launch of our AirAsia Japan operations, which will be our first step into the lucrative North Asia market, in line with our vision to expand throughout Asia.”

The Asian Excellence Recognition Awards recognises excellence in investor communications, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, environmental practices and financial performances.

Recognitions are awarded based on interviews conducted with investors.

The recognition award is part of Corporate Governance Asia’s mission to enhance corporate governance practices throughout Asia.

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A Malaysian CEO who is supposed to be a world class innovator and industry leader should not be of and by someone whose business strategy is to trot on other businesses based on manipulated information and context, skewed perspective and worse of all, perpetuating a lie.

Malaysia Airlines should stand up against Fernandes too. After all, it is only fair after the national carrier was slapped with a RM10 million by MyCC for Fernandes’s failed attempt to cannibalise the GLC into oblivion. -bigdogdotcom