KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 12): The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has ceased to be a substantial shareholder of AirAsia Group Bhd.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, the airline group said EPF disposed of some 18.56 million shares on Feb 6, bringing down its interest to less than 5%.
EPF’s stake in AirAsia had already declined to 5.33% prior to this disposal after paring down its shareholding since mid-December.
The start of the selloff was possibly triggered by the coronavirus outbreak in December that has been viewed by many aviation analysts as impacting air travel.
On top of that, news broke earlier this month of the corruption and bribery allegations against AirAsia, AirAsia X Bhd and Airbus involving US$50 million (RM204.8 million).
Following the virus outbreak as well as news of the Airbus corruption scandal, AirAsia and AirAsia X shares were sold down heavily.
AirAsia shares were trading at RM1.19 this afternoon, down 26.1% since the selldown started on Jan 23. During the period, RM1.403 billion of its market capitalisation has been wiped off.
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/epf-no-longer-substantial-shareholder-airasia
