AirAsia X shares gained a modest 0.8 percent as the long-haul budget carrier made its market debut in Kuala Lumpur.
They traded at 1.26 ringgit when the Malaysian bourse opened, just one sen up from their initial valuation despite huge interest ahead of the listing.
Malaysia-based AirAsia X, founded by flamboyant aviation tycoon Tony Fernandes, raised $308.6 million from its IPO last month.
The carrier said proceeds would largely go to tripling its fuel-efficient Airbus fleet from the current 10 aircraft and repayment of bank loans.
AirAsia X will take delivery of 23 Airbus A330-300 planes over the next four years with a further order for 10 A350-900s as it aggressively expands routes to meet demand in the Asia-Pacific region.
The airline, launched in 2007, reported a net profit of 33.8 million ringgit ($10.8 million) for the year ended December 31, 2012.
Charting an ambitious growth path, AirAsia X plans to increase services to existing destinations and carve out lucrative new routes in Australia, Japan and China.
Analysts said the successful listing of the long-haul arm of AirAsia — Asia’s largest budget airline by fleet size — proved critics wrong and showed that a low-cost long haul business model was viable.
Total demand for the institutional tranche of the public offering was more than 10 times the base shares available, the company said.
“Investors may want to pay close attention to this stock because it is one of a handful of airlines in the world that has been innovative and committed to opening new markets,” said Shukor Yusof, a Singapore-based aviation analyst with Standard & Poor’s.
He told AFP that AirAsia X’s listing would encourage other regional carriers, such as fast-growing Indonesia-based Lion Air to follow suit in making a share offering.
The International Air Transport Association has described the Asia-Pacific as the world’s fastest growing market, with passenger traffic more than doubling since 1998, despite fuel costs surging 55 percent since 2006.
Malaysia's AirAsia X up 0.8% on market debut
