Sabah Development Bank loan benefited AirAsia and Sabah
Published on: Thursday, August 15, 2024
Fernandes said Teleport was helping farmers logistically with their cold storage facilities.
Kota Kinabalu: EO of Capital A, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said the RM300m loan it obtained from the Sabah Development Bank (SDB) during the Covid-19 pandemic saved the airline.
It has kept a lot of jobs. It continues tourism. It is not only about Sabah saving AirAsia, but we continue to carry 80 million people,” he said, adding that it has since settled half the loan.
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“I have 20,000 amazing staff , including 1,000 Sabahans, many of whom have worked with me for over 15 years,” he said.
“We will continue to repay the loan over the next two years. We are also paying the RM69 million in interest,” he said.
In 2020, news of the loan came to light to some controversy as a “risky venture” for the debt-ridden state bank.
He explained that part of the RM300 million loan was used to develop Teleport’s facilities, including cold storage facilities in Sabah, the group’s new app called Move, and AirAsia.
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Teleport, the logistics subsidiary of Capital A, has established one of three cold storage facilities in Sabah to connect local agriculture and fisheries providers to export markets.
The facility is now ready to help Sabahan farmers and fishermen reach markets in China and Japan.
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“This is going to be important for Sabah. We’ll need similar facilities in Tawau and Sandakan, where the growers are based.
“We’ve always believed in Sabah’s agricultural potential, and it could become a significant logistics hub for the BIMP-EAGA region, facilitating the movement of goods between Asia and Australia,” he said.
BIMP-EAGA stands for the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area.
Fernandes said Teleport was helping farmers logistically with their cold storage facilities.
“Many farmers spend a lot of money moving their products. We want to build cold storage to help fishermen and farmers send their goods directly to China, Japan, and other markets,” he said.
Fernandes said that his other plans for Sabah include establishing a maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility in the state.
“We have a 14-bay hangar in Johor Baru, but we need more. We need another 28 bays. We think this is a great opportunity for Sabah, and I’ll be discussing that with the Sabah finance minister later,” he said.
He also highlighted the progress of AirAsia Move’s e-hailing subsidiary, AirAsia Ride, which has already achieved over 14,000 rides per month.
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