KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 26): AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) fell 8% today after it posted net losses of RM131.3 million for the final quarter of 2013, and RM87.0 million for the full year.
At 11.18 am, AAX was traded at 87.5 sen after falling 6.5 sen or 6.9% from 94 sen with some 22.5 million shares done.
It had earlier fallen as much as 7.5 sen or 8.0% to a low of 86.5 sen, and was one of the most active stocks on the bourse.
Despite the disappointing bottom line, revenue jumped 26% year-on-year to RM680 million from RM539 million.
In a statement to Bursa Malaysia, the budget airline blamed the loss on the stronger US dollar against the ringgit in the 12 months ended Dec 31, 2013 resulting in recognition of forex losses of RM176.2 million.
Following the disappointing results, Alliance Research has downgraded AAX shares to “sell” with a lower target price of 81 sen.
The research house has also cut its earnings forecast for AAX by 111.3% and 41.7% for financial years ending December 31, 2014 and 2015 (FY15) respectively.
“We are seeing limited earnings visibility for AAX due to the confluence of the increasingly competitive operating environment and its hyper-sensitivity to yields.
“While the yield compression and start-up losses have largely been priced-in at this level, we believe AAX’s share price has yet to price-in the recent adverse forex movement,” said Alliance analyst Tan Kee Hoong.
Written by Ahmad Naqib Idris Adzman Shah of theedgemalaysia.com
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