AirAsia To Raise USD$824 Mln In 2010

Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia needs to raise MYR3 billion ringgit (USD$823.5 million) next year as it expects to take delivery of another 24 new aircraft, a company official said on Wednesday.

Mohshin Aziz, investor relations manager at AirAsia, said the MYR3 billion was on top of the MYR2 billion planned for 2009.

AirAsia told investors in March it needs to raise MYR2 billion to MYR2.1 billion in order to take delivery of 14 Airbus A320 aircraft this year.

Investment bank UBS said AirAsia disclosed early this year that it had secured funding for its aircraft deliveries in 2009 and 2010.

"Management have indicated that these facilities contain no material covenants, so we would be surprised if the company faced any funding difficulties over the next couple of years," said UBS in a report published on Tuesday.