The Asian region's largest discount carrier, Air Asia Bhd has reported a ten-fold increase in share values in almost ten months. From there, the airline would adopt a dividend policy in 2013 as profits rose for the last four quarters in a row.
Net income has doubled to 350.6 million ringgit or US$113 million in the last quarter of December. While the stock has fallen nineteen percent in the past twelve months, after the announcement the share values rose 8.7 percent to 2.87 ringgit per share.
According to Group CEO Tony Fernandes, "It's the right time to pay dividends. We've always said to our shareholders give us ten to twelve years to build the infrastructure, build the right airline and then we'll start paying some dividends."
Fernandes' group took over the airline in 2001 and first distributed profits to shareholders in 2011 after the airline retained earlier earnings in order to finance its expansion.
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