AirAsia plots more digital deals to navigate Covid troubles

AirAsia is hunting for deals across south-east Asia to grow its nascent digital business, as the budget carrier seeks to accelerate a pivot to ecommerce and ride-hailing after being battered by Covid-19. Tony Fernandes, owner and CE of the Malaysian airline, told the Financial Times that AirAsia was looking at potential acquisitions in the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam after buying the Thailand operations of Gojek earlier this month. The airline is also exploring merging its digital operations with a special purpose acquisition company (Spac), or blank-cheque vehicle. “This wasn’t a one-off transaction,” said Fernandes, referring to the Gojek deal, adding that he expected to announce more collaboration with the Indonesian ride-hailing, food delivery and payments group. AirAsia was keen to tie up with other tech players in the region and had already received approaches from some, he added. “That’s really interesting and we’re very open to that because . . . we’re buying tech, we’re buying people, we’re buying experience and of course some data,” Fernandes said. The pursuit of regional acquisitions comes as the carrier’s fintech unit BigPay is set to announce a $100m investment from “a very big conglomerate” in the next two weeks, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, the first fundraising for AirAsia’s digital business. BigPay earlier this month applied for a digital banking licence in Malaysia. “Tony Fernandes has obviously got strong supporters out there. He has a base and a well-known brand, everyone knows AirAsia,” said Angus Mackintosh, founder of CrossASEAN Research. “That is not his problem. It’s transforming that into being seen as a tech company.”<br/>