By Justin Lee (Singapore)
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) is one of the largest airport operator groups in the world—in terms of number of passengers handled in 2019—managing 39 airports across Malaysia (with five international airports, 16 domestic and 18 STOLports) as well as one international airport, Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport in Turkey. MAHB is incorporated as a public limited company and is listed on the Malaysian Stock Exchange (Bursa Malaysia).
Source: MAHB Corporate Presentation for Quarter Ended 31 December 2020
Due to the disruption in air travel caused by the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, passenger traffic at MAHB’s airports fell by 69.6% in 2020 to 43.0 million, with traffic for MAHB’s airports in Malaysia falling by 75.5% to 25.8 million and Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen’s Airport traffic falling by 52.1% to 17.2 million.
MAHB’s total revenue for 2020 fell by 64.2% to MYR 1,886.3mn while EBITDA fell by 99.1% to MYR 21.6mn. The Group made a loss of MYR 1,116.2mn after taxes and zakat (religious tax) for the year 2020.
Source: Flickr
Current assets for MAHB fell by 45.0% from MYR 4,401.0mn as of 31 December 2019 to MYR 2422.5mn as of 31 December 2020 while current liabilities fell by 55.0% from MYR 3289.1mn as of 31 December 2019 to MYR 1477.7mn as of 31 December 2020.
This translated into an improvement in MAHB’s current ratio from 1.33 as of 31 December 2019 to 1.64 as of 31 December 2020.
In order to strengthen its liquidity position, MAHB completed the issuance of new MYR 700.0mn Senior Sukuk (Islamic bonds) on 6 November 2020, comprising a 7-year MYR 480.0mn tranche and a 10-year MYR 220.0mn tranche with distribution of 3.3% and 3.6% per annum, respectively.