AAX's intra-day short-selling suspended as shares dive to lowest in 10 months

KUALA LUMPUR (March 1): Intra-day short-selling (IDSS) of AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) has been suspended, after the counter sank to its lowest in nearly 10 months amid active trades on Friday, after the mid-haul low-cost airline reported a 82% year-on-year (y-o-y) slump in its fourth quarter net profit as expenses surged ahead of revenue growth.

AAX fell as much as 23.53% to RM1.30 on Friday, before paring some losses to close at RM1.50 — its lowest since May 15 last year — down 20 sen or 11.76% from its previous close, for a market capitalisation of RM670.61 million. The stock, which is up 94.81% from a year ago, saw 25.63 million shares done.

“Please be informed that short-selling under IDSS for stock AAX has been suspended for the rest of the day as the last done price of the approved securities dropped more than 15% or 15 sen from the reference price,” it said.

IDSS for AAX will only resume next Monday (March 4) at 8.30am.

AAX’s net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2023 (4QFY2023) tumbled 82.17% to RM27.37 million from RM153.48 million a year earlier, despite revenue more than doubling to RM818.22 million from RM339.3 million on healthy passenger load factor and higher average passenger fare.

Fuel expenses tripled y-o-y to RM473.15 million, while staff cost more than doubled and maintenance charges jumped nearly six times, its bourse filing showed. The company also booked RM50.79 million in depreciation charges compared to RM16.13 million over the same three months in 2022.

For the full FY2023, AAX registered a net profit of RM366.47 million on revenue of RM2.53 billion.

Capital A Bhd, the parent of its sister company AirAsia, also closed in the red on Friday, after dipping 1.45% to 68 sen for a market capitalisation of RM2.87 billion. The stock saw 20.75 million shares traded.

Capital A reverted back to losses in its final quarter of 2023, dragged by higher operating expenses, asset depreciation and higher financing costs.

Net loss for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2023 was RM159.57 million compared with net profit of RM109.95 million over the same period a year prior, though revenue more than doubled y-o-y to RM4.86 billion from RM2.20 billion on strong recovery of both domestic and international travel demand.

But for the full year, Capital A returned to the black after four consecutive years of net losses, as it recorded a net profit of RM836.99 million for FY2023 versus a net loss of RM2.63 billion in FY2022. Annual revenue more than doubled to RM14.77 billion from RM6.44 billion previously.

AAX’s 4Q profit down 82% on higher costs and fuel prices

Capital A sinks into the red in 4Q as higher expenses, depreciation drag