MAS AirAsia Story - MAS? Throw out that Firefly pest. Its bothering the ears

MAS, AirAsia and the Dealmaker

A.P.A. Sumber: Sakmongkol AK47 

The issue is this. MAS is a nationally owned asset. Any changes as to the nature of it ownership must be done with all the indicators that the changes were done in a very transparent manner. Otherwise, it shows the government doesn’t know how to manage and handle assets belonging to the country. Otherwise it also goes to show, those people you trust to handle public asset can do whatever they want without giving proper and due consideration to non-commercial objectives. It’s a public asset not a private one.

 

This whole idea to streamline the business stinks; MAS on premium market and AA on low cost flight. But the deal is only great for AA it is a raw deal for MAS.

Should MAS from now on focus on the premium segment, it would be doing so in a, “shrinking pie”. The low cost carrier market is the one where the growth is significant and any restrictions or disbanding of Firefly could mean a loss of current and future income to MAS. Further MAS would no longer able to offer “Everyday low price" campaign as this would directly compete with AA. TF made a big fuss about this matter when it was launched some time ago.

Are we incapacitating MAS? Perhaps, MAS being competitive and back on recovery track would post a damaging threat to AA especially in the domestic market where Fire Fly operates from both Skypark (Subang) and KLIA. This could be the motivation for TF to be in MAS so as to “control” its growth. We all know over the year how TF has played MAS, first with the Sabah & Sarawak routes, then the Singapore routes. This could be another game that could finally check mate MAS

With due respects to CIMB, how come CIMB is the adviser for both? It’s unethical?

CIMB has a blotted track record as advisor. Remember Synergy Drive? No more drive? (Now back to Sime Darby) = loss making never before experienced by Malaysian corporate. What was the advice given to Telekom Malaysia by CIMB? The advice was against the world trend (most telcos merge/take over cellular entities). But its advice was to have TM part company of its money making machine in the form of its mobile businesses to Axiata. What happened to TM?  It has never recovered financially. Indeed its now saddled with RM700 cash dividend yearly.