Tiger acquires 40% stake in Philippines' SEAair

Management mulls on introducing new routes to the network.

Tiger Airways Holdings Limited (“Tiger”) today finalised a sale and purchase agreement to acquire a 40% stake in Southeast Asian Airlines (“SEAir”), Inc. This stake will be acquired from existing foreign shareholders at US$7 million, less liabilities to be confirmed in a due diligence review. The investment will be held through Tiger’s wholly owned subsidiary, Roar Aviation II Pte. Ltd.

“We are pleased to welcome a new Cub to our family and look forward to nurturing its growth with our Filipino business partners. The investment in SEAir is in-line with our strategy to develop the business into a pan-Asian one, one that will enable us to leverage on the strength of our Singapore base and scale up the size of our business across the region,” said Tiger's Chief Executive Officer, Chin Yau Seng.

The investment in SEAir is Tiger’s second such joint venture in Asia. Tiger acquired a 33% stake in Mandala Airlines in Indonesia in January 2012. “We will continue to seek opportunities to extend the Tiger reach in Asia Pacific. Asia is one of the fastest growing areas in air travel and we intend to play a major role in driving that growth,” said Mr Chin.

“The Philippines is a large country with more than 7,000 islands and a population of over 90 million, not including the 11 million working and living abroad. There is enormous potential to develop the domestic and international air travel,” added Mr Chin.

SEAir currently operates two Airbus A319 aircraft leased from Tiger under the Tiger Partner Airline programme. In addition, there are plans to expand the fleet to five aircraft within this financial year with the addition of three A320 aircraft.

SEAir will be introducing new routes to the network, details of which will be announced at an appropriate time. The airline will adopt Tiger’s business model. This includes offering attractive fares to international and domestic destinations within a five-hour flying radius from the Philippines.

Established in 1995, SEAir is a commercial airline based in the Philippines. SEAir operates domestic flights (within the Philippines) and international flights to destinations such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Kota Kinabalu.