Speaking to reporters on Friday, Garuda Indonesia president director Pahala S Mansury said he was confident that GMF AeroAsia would be able to finalize all the necessary paperwork for an IPO within the next few months.

“We are currently in the process of registering [an IPO plan] with the Indonesia Stock Exchange [IDX] and the Financial Services Authority [OJK]. We expect to realize the plan by the end of September or early October,” he said.

GMF AeroAsia, he said, planned to divest 15 to 30 percent of its shares in the anticipated IPO. Earlier this year, the company stated that it looked forward to earning as much as US$300 million from the IPO.

To proceed with the IPO, Pahala said that GMF AeroAsia had appointed four underwriters, namely Bank Nasional Indonesia (BNI) Securities, Mandiri Securities, Bahana Securities and Danareksa Securities, all of which are government-affiliated institutions.

Pahala said GMF AeroAsia would use proceeds from the IPO to support several projects, such as organizing engine and airplane workshops, as well as establishing joint ventures with other companies.

“In the future, we hope to expand the company’s capabilities, especially in airplane engine repair, because it will be able to give us great added value,” Pahala said.

On its website, GMF AeroAsia claimed it had booked $337 million in revenue last year, with net profit at $55.6 million.

For this year, the company is targeting to book $454 million and $69 million in revenue and net profit, respectively.

GMF AeroAsia’s finances are a stark contrast to that of its parent company PT Garuda Indonesia, which has been in the red for the past few years.

In the first quarter of 2017, the airline suffered $89.49 million in losses. The deficit was even wider in the same period in 2014, when losses reached $163.89 million. In 2015 and 2016, Garuda Indonesia saw a slight improvement in profit, earning $8.07 million and $74.48 million, respectively.

Trimegah Securities analyst Sebastian Tobing said GMF AeroAsia’s anticipated IPO would be an attractive option for investors as the company has shown more stability compared to its parent company.

“GMF AeroAsia is also a pretty sizeable company compared to other entities that have gone public in 2017,” Sebastian said.

Garuda Indonesia has been listed on the IDX since Feb. 11, 2011. Two years later, GMF AeroAsia unveiled an IPO plan that was later delayed because the company considered its valuation too small to float its shares on the stock market.

Established in 1949, GMF AeroAsia initially served as the technical division of Garuda Indonesia at the Kemayoran and Halim Perdanakusuma airports in North and Central Jakarta, respectively.

In 1984, GMF AeroAsia was relocated to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and rebranded itself as the maintenance and engineering (M&E) division, which eventually developed into an independent business unit.

In 2002, it spun off from Garuda Indonesia and officially became an independent entity. (dea)

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