KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) fell over 5% in early trade after posting a record net loss in the April-June 2021 period.

       The long-haul budget airline fell 5.56%, or 0.5 sen to 8.5 sen at 9.49am. The counter has risen some 50% in the past one year.

       AAX posted its biggest quarterly net loss of RM24.6bil net loss in the three-month ended June 30. Revenue during the quarter stood at RM72.2mil.

       For the 18 months from Jan 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, AAX saw its net loss come in at RM31.63bil on revenue of RM1.24bil.

       AAX has changed its financial year from Dec 31 to June 30.

       PublicInvest Research said AAX’s cumulative 18MFY21 core net loss of RM1.84bil was ahead of estimates, making up 93.4% and 94.4% of the house and consensus 18-month net loss estimates respectively.

       The research house said AAX continued to face severe liquidity constraints and all hopes are on a successful debt restructuring and new equity funding exercise from existing and new investors to provide sufficient capital to restart operations when international borders reopen.

       “The group is still in the midst of its debt restructuring process and is looking to raise new equity funding to provide sufficient capital to restart its operations when international borders reopen.

       “We keep estimates unchanged at this juncture pending completion of its restructuring exercise and retain our ‘underperform’ call on AAX with a target price of 1 sen,” PublicInvest said.