AirAsia told Bursa Malaysia that it would issue 559 million new shares in a share placement exercise at 1.80 ringgit a share to Tune Life Sdn Bhd, owned equally by both Fernandes and Kamarudin.

This will eventually raise the duo’s direct and indirect stake in the region’s largest low-cost carrier to 32.4percent from 18.9% currently. Fernandes is group CEO while Kamarudin the chairman of AirAsia group.

The proceeds from the share sale will be used to reduce debts, pay for aircraft purchases, construct a new building for its headquarters and working capital going forward.

This share placement also pours cold water on market talk on a potential privatisation, at least for now. “AirAsia is our baby and we have been hurt by lack of analysts and shareholder confidence, so we thought we will kill two birds with one stone. Raise the money needed for AirAsia, and show our long-term commitment,” Fernandes said in an SMS to StarBizWeek yesterday.

AirAsia has been facing tough times the past six months after a Hong Kong-based research house raised several financial concerns that could have led to the share price tumble.

The share price have since gained ground, closing at RM1.83 a share on Thursday. They were suspended yesterday and will resume trading on Monday.

Early this year, the airline announced a US$1bil multi-currency medium-term note programme to raise funds for the airline, but it was later abandoned.

“The multi-currency medium-term loan failed due to high cost of funding,” says Fernandes.

AirAsia, is an airline both Fernandes and Kamarudin bought for RM1 nearly two decades ago. Over the years, both had their focus on growing other businesses but now Fernandes says: “Din (Kamarudin) and I are thrilled and energised to be back driving the AirAsia vision.”

In the statement to Bursa, AirAsia said of the RM1.006bil, 34% or RM342mil will go to pre-payment and repayment of debts, RM275mil for funding aircraft, spare engines and other aircraft parts and associated pre-delivery payments, about RM103mil for construction and development of AirAsia’s new headquarters at KLIA2, and the remaining amount for working capital and others.

The rational for the share issuance was to enable the airline to raise funds it needs to reduce and prepay its bank borrowings, and in the process its gearing will be reduced from 2.79 times as at end-2014 to 2.22 times after completion of the exercise, which is expected in the third quarter of this year.

The exercise raises AirAsia share base from 2.7 billion shares of 10 sen each to 3.341 billion.

“This will strengthen AirAsia’s balance sheets and increase its financing flexibility,” the airline told Bursa.

The airline has RM12.72bil total borrowings, and it will be reduced to RM12.3bil after the completion of the exercise.

Fernandes, however, declines to say how he and Kamarudin will fund the share placement but AirAsia declared on Thursday a first and final dividend of 4% per share.

The issue price will also be adjusted from RM1.84 a share now to RM1.80 a share after the dividends are paid out.

An EGM will be called to get shareholder’s approval on the placement.

Meanwhile, AirAsia will be expanding its services to link Johor Baru with other international destinations such as China and the Philippines soon.

Chief executive officer Aireen Omar said that the next confirmed Chinese destination to fly from Johor Baru would be Guangzhou.

She said the launch and official announcement for the Johor Baru-Guangzhou route would be made by this month.

“We do recognise The Philippines as an important destination and we would like to access the country as part of our growth plan for the next five years.

“Johor is our third biggest hub after Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu and we want to grow the state into a regional player. Plans are in the pipeline,” she said after welcoming the arrival of its inaugural Hat Yai flight from Thailand at the Senai International Airport, in Johor Baru.

She added that Johor is a growing state and has shown potential for AirAsia to introduce more traffic at the airport.

“In line with that, we also have plans to expand the existing Johor Baru-Bangkok route from the current frequency of four times a week to a daily flight,” she added.

The Johor Baru-Hat Yai direct flight is the sixth international route offered by AirAsia at the airport after Bandung, Yogyakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok and Surabaya.

The one hour and 40 minute Hat Yai flight carrying around 100 passengers touched down at the airport at around 2.10pm yesterday and was received by Aireen and Senai Airport Terminal Services Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Md Derick Basir.

Aireen added that the flight marks the beginning of a much-anticipated connectivity between the southern city of Thailand and the southern state of peninsular.

Passengers can enjoy a promotional all-in fare of RM99 until April 10 with a travelling period of from April 1 to Sept 30.

The move is part of a global restructuring plan announced last September that could see the American company axe 10,000 jobs and close more than 20 facilities over three years.

“(We closed the facility) late last year and we’re still clearing it out. Some of the equipment is being auctioned off, most of the people have been let go,” Caterpillar Singapore country manager Jeff Hardee said.

International food and beverage company Nestle announced on Friday (April 1) the establishment of the Nestle Research Centre (NRC) Asia, in partnership with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star).

The centre, with additional offices in China and Japan, will help Nestle to develop quality nutritional products for elderly people in the region and beyond, said a joint statement by the two institutions.

The number of people in Asia aged 60 or over will more than double to 1.2 billion by 2050, according to a United Nations report.

Nestle’s chief technology officer, Professor Stefan Catsicas, said: “Singapore’s focus on higher education and scientific excellence with strong industrial development purpose makes it an ideal place to broaden our research base.”

Nestle’s partnership with A*Star dates back to 2011 with collaborations on clinical nutrition, said the joint statement.

A*Star chairman Lim Chuan Poh added: “We look forward to working closely with Nestle to meet the needs of Singapore’s and Asia’s ageing populations and empower them to live longer, healthier and more fulfilling lives.”

In a statement Friday, the state investment arm said this was made possible with the help of the 1MDB rationalisation plan initiated by the government.

“1MDB is pleased to announce that its subsidiary, Powertek Investment Holdings Sdn Bhd, has fully settled the remaining 3 billion ringgit balance of a 3.5 billion ringgit syndicated term loan facility,” it said.

The loan, it said, was entered into in May 2014 with a syndicate of domestic banks led by Maybank.

“It has now been fully prepaid in advance of the original maturity date of May 2024, as part of the successful 1MDB rationalisation plan,” it said.

(US$1 = 3.90 ringgit)

He was a third-year university student at the time, and was working on how to get oil out of the ground more efficiently, but could not see himself remaining in that job.

“I like the ability to do different things in my career… I just couldn’t see people ever getting out of the labs,” said Williams, 46.

When he returned to Britain’s Loughborough University for his final year, he heard that a friend worked as a training actuary at an insurance firm.

He felt that taking up that sort of post would play to his strengths in dealing with numbers.

The insurance industry also offered the chance to “go for the management route and do different roles”, he said.

He started work in London as a student actuary for life insurance firm Guardian in 1992, and did actuarial valuation and pricing till 1995. Then he moved to reinsurance company Swiss Re. In 2000, he was sent to Hong Kong to take on a sales role for two years.

When he was asked to return to Europe, he felt he was not ready to leave Asia.

He joined AXA in 2002 after learning that the insurance giant wanted to grow its business in Asia.

Since then he has risen through the ranks, with stints in Hong Kong and the Philippines.

He attributes his promotions to a desire to add value to his teams.

“In my early days, there were some days when you just went home and you thought, ’What did I actually do today?’ And it just felt like it was a waste of a day. I was always very motivated by adding value to something.”

He was offered the role of chief operating officer in Hong Kong in 2006 and said it was one of the hardest jobs he had ever taken on.

“There are tens of thousands of processes every single month, and all along I’ve always felt quite sorry for the chief operating officer because if one of those 10,000 goes wrong, someone’s always moaning straight away.”

He spent his first three months trying to ensure that no operational mistakes were made in the processing of about 20,000 transactions a month but found that exasperating.

“I was coming at it from a ’knowing’ basis – I know the solution, therefore, you should do it like this. A big challenge in those first three months was: How am I going to know what every one of these people do? How am I really going to understand enough to fix everything?”

After three months, however, he realised that this was impossible. Soon after, it struck him that his job was not to ensure the team did not make any mistakes but to foster a culture of putting the customer at the centre of what the firm did.

Teawere each focusing on minimising the processing time within their divisions, but no one was measuring the time it took to process a new policy as a whole.

So as a policy moved from one department to the next, there would be a lag as the policy would be left unattended for periods of time before processing began at the next department. This would ultimately affect the customer’s waiting time.

Willianoted, however, that “from a customer point of view, the only thing you’re really worried about is, ’When do I sign it and when do I get told I’m covered’ “.

Getting people to measure the customer experience as opposed to meeting department-specific targets was quite a difficult cultural change to drive, he said.

He came up with a new set of eight performance metrics, including the total time customers had to wait for policies to be processed and the premium collection rate.

“When we see some customers not having a very good collection rate, maybe we weren’t doing a very good job reminding them,” he said.

It took employees about three to nine months to change their mindset, he said.

In early 2011, he came to Singapore to take up the role of chief executive, lured by the challenge to grow AXA’s business here. While AXA was a “top five player” in Asia, it “was not even a top 10 player” in Singapore then, said Williams.

Under his charge, AXA broadened its product range and distribution channels. Last year, AXA’s market share here was 4.1 per cent, placing it at seventh position in terof market share. This was up from about 1.5 per cent in 2011.

Looking ahead, AXA’s first priority is to improve customer experiences further, he said. This involves structuring processes such that customers can easily access the right mix of human and digital resources they need for a given transaction.

If a customer wants to check if a claim is covered, he would probably like to speak with an employee and also receive digital verification that the company is going to pay.

On the other hand, if a customer just wants to change an address, he would probably prefer just logging in and making the change, as opposed to calling in to speak to an employee.

AXA seeks to cater to the needs of the majority for a given transaction, while also giving the minority the services they require, Williasaid.

Williaspends his free time trail running and cycling, and also watches football at pubs on Saturday evenings. He got divorced a few years ago and finds that the toughest thing about working in Singapore is being apart from his two daughters, aged six and nine.

That experience has taught him to prioritise his life goals and be comfortable with the sacrifices as a result.

For two years, he had his children living with him in Singapore. Then, he made a decision to spend more time with them and less time on his health. He felt a lot less fit as a result, but said that it was worth the sacrifice.

“When I’ve got people who’ve got conflicting goals, I tell them, ’Look there is no right or wrong, but think about what for you is the most important thing,’ ” he said.

Kwek Perroy Li Choo, chief marketing officer at AXA Life, says Williais open to ideas and seeks consensus.

“He is very approachable, which for us Asians, is a pleasant surprise. Having a top guy who is very approachable needs a little bit of getting used to, but is always good.”

In return for the capital investment, Security Bank has issued to BTMU 150.71 million common shares and 200 million preferred shares, making the Japanese group its second largest shareholder of Security Bank, the bank disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday.

The group of Frederick Dy remains as the biggest shareholder of Security Bank with majority voting control.

In a special board meeting of Security Bank, BTMU’s nominees Takayoshi Futae and Takahiro Onishi were elected to the board of directors. Futae is the managing executive officer in charge of Japanese corporate credit of BTMU based in Tokyo while Onishi is deputy general manager for global corporate banking of BTMU in Japan.

“We welcome BTMU’s representatives to the Security Bank Board. We are happy to share with our customers and stakeholders the good news that our partnership deal with BTMU has been completed today. With our bigger capital and the combined strengths of Security Bank and BTMU, we look forward to serving our customers better than before,” said Security Bank chair Alberto Villarosa.

Go Watanabe, chief executive officer for BTMU Asia and Oceania, said that the strategic alliance with Security Bank was very much aligned with the bank’s expansion plan in Asia. “We are very excited with the opportunity to work closely with Security Bank. We have started exploring various areas for collaboration including work-site business and PPP (public-private partnership) projects. By partnering with Security Bank, we can expect to expand our business platform and identify new business areas for BTMU in the Philippines,” he said.

With BTMU’s 20 per cent equity investment, Security Bank’s shareholder capital increased to P90.2 billion pro-forma as of April 1 from P53.2 billion as of end-2015. Security Bank’s book value per share increased by 36 per cent to P119.53 pro-forma as of April 1 from P88.17 as of end-2015. This puts Security Bank among the five largest private domestic universal banks in the country by capital.

The additional capital will be used to accelerate the execution of Security Bank’s growth strategies.

“We will be able to more effectively deliver our service-oriented ‘BetterBanking’ brand to our customers through a larger branch network and a more comprehensive range of financial services. We hope to accelerate growth of our retail banking business as well as better coverage of the SME (small and medium enterprise) sector. With BTMU’s expertise in project finance, we expect to participate more actively in PPP and infrastructure projects. Additionally, in partnership with BTMU, Security Bank will be able to penetrate the Japanese business community,” said Security Bank president Alfonso Salcedo Jr.

PSC registered a 15.4 per cent growth in net income last year to reach P1.01 billion, the company reported to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday.

For the fourth quarter alone, PSC’s net profit rose by 21.6 per cent year-on-year to P492.5 million. This was on the back of a 35.5 per cent year-on-year expansion in revenues from merchandise sales to P6.69 billion.

PSC’s store count at the end 2015 rose to 1,602 from 1,282 stores in the previous year. There were 337 new stores added against 17 closures during the year.

At the end of 2015, there were 1,391 7-Eleven stores in Luzon, 178 in Visayas and 33 in Mindanao.

Retail sales of all stores for the full year went up by 25.3 per cent to P25.8 billion. Net margin eased to 4.5 per cent from 5.1 per cent in the previous year.

PSC achieved another milestone by entering Mindanao. It opened stores in Davao City and Cagayan de Oro during the second quarter.

ALO is determined to become the number one choice for technology products and services, serving the public sector, retail and corporate markets in Laos and Asean, the company confirmed.

ALO produces its own brand IT equipment, maily the high quality at affordable priced productivity and mobile devices and operate retail IT stores across the country.

ALO has the mission in helping the country bridging the digital divide. By introducing low cost, latest technology and green ICT equipment.

The company’s official opening ceremony was attended by Deputy Ministry of Education and Sports, Associate Prof. Dr Kongsy Sengmany where OEM Master License agreements were exchanged between Chairman of ALO Technology Sole Co; Ltd Thanousone Phonamat and Microsoft OEM Director, South East Asia New Markets, Pubudu Basnayake.

Thanousone Phonamat speaking at the opening ceremony said ALO was determined to be the top value IT service brand for Lao customers.

“We have invested heavily in skilled human resources, enabling us to architect market-leading solutions to an established reseller-base, with which we have close and trusted relationships. A highly-qualified staff complement enables us to engineer solutions to suit individual client needs, as well as provide expert advice and support on an ongoing basis,” he said.

He highlighted that the company had specialised in providing project management and professional consulting services to international agencies and corporations involved in national development projects since 2005.

This is the largest growing division of TVS Consulting Co., Ltd and today, the company has evolved as an independent entity under the TVS Group.

“We aim to provide utmost value to our customers by rendering comprehensive assistance -in project management, public relations, professional services and other technical coordination activities specified and requested by our clients,” he explained.

Lao Technology Group had also been established as TVS ICT Division targeting large ICT projects and in-country ICT tenders, he added.

He explained that the company had the vision to become the leading consulting services firm in Laos specialising in project consultancy services related to international development cooperation with all international-funding agencies.

Thanousone said they would operate the global standard innovative training and testing centre in Laos to prepare local human resources for the challenges of the Asean Economic Community.

They will also tap global business/economic trends by applying latest technology concepts to potential business sectors to improve the speed of response, cost-effectiveness, efficiency and productivity, customer acquisition and service.

Two-month-old Tribecar, set up by a family which runs Malaysian conglomerate Insas, is offering short-term car rentals ranging from S$2 (US$1.50) to S$6 an hour. That is a fraction of what other car-sharing plans charge, and far less onerous than the S$1,500 a month most traditional rental companies levy. The starting price is even lower than any taxi flagdown fare.

Tribecar currently has a modest fleet of 23 cars (mainly Toyota Corolla Altis sedans which are five years or older), and has signed up 210 hirers who place a S$100 refundable deposit with the operator.

Tribecar director Thong Mei Chuen said: “So far, no one has asked for his deposit back.”

Thong, 34, who runs the start-up with her brother Weng Sheng, 26, said: “We noticed an underserved group of hirers – those who want ultra short-term rentals.

“They range from mums dropping their kids off or doing grocery shopping to night-shift workers who may pick up a couple of Uber jobs to offset the cost of rental.”

An investment banker for 10 years before starting Tribecar, Thong said business has been encouraging, with fleet occupancy hovering at 60 per cent to 70 per cent. “We have done zero advertising,” she said.

Tribecar aims to grow its fleet to 500 cars by the year end, and is looking to tie up with other rental firms.

By the time it hits 200 cars, Thong said hirers will no longer have to return the vehicle to its original pick-up point and can simply leave it near their destination. Another hirer in the vicinity will pick up the car.

Thong said the fleet has to be of a certain size for this operating model to work. Right now, its 23 cars are parked in high-demand areas such as Housing Board towns.

Tribecar uses a system that allows hirers to access cars just with their smartphone. Once a hirer books a vehicle at a desired location and time slot, he can unlock it by keying in a PIN on the phone.

“You don’t need a stored-value card; you don’t need to fiddle with a key box,” Thong said, referring to methods employed by other car-sharing operators.

Payment is via an e-wallet account with the company.

Thong said the majority of Tribecar hirers offer paid rides through one of the many third-party ride-booking apps here.

“Increasingly, people need alternative sources of income, and this is one way they can do it,” she said.

Tribecar claims all its vehicles have the proper documentation and insurance for such services.

Uber driver Jerry Yeo, 43, said that while the short-term rental concept is “brilliant”, whether it will become profitable is a question mark as what draws people to drive for Grab or Uber is the “idea of having access to a set of private wheels”.

Car-Sharing Association (Singapore) president Lai Meng said the new start-up was “inevitable”. “It is an underserved market, and there is plenty of room for growth.”

Tribecar is believed to be the first car-sharing outfit that allows its hirers to offer paid rides.

Asked if its members could use its cars to offer paid rides, car-sharing firm Whizzcar (part of Popular Rent A Car) said it is exploring the option.

Managing director K.K. Ho said: “We are not into that right now. It doesn’t make sense because of the cost. We start from S$13 an hour.”

(US$1 = S$1.35)