Maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) firm GMF AeroAsia is considering two options to get the Indonesian company publicly listed.
"For two companies in one group to be listed, the two companies must be independent of each other," said GMF president and CEO Richard Budihadianto at an interview with Flightglobal Pro in Jakarta. "Now, GMF is still dependent on Garuda for about 70% of its revenue."
The first option is for GMF to expand and win more third-party contracts, thus becoming less reliant on its parent Garuda Indonesia.
To do this, the firm needs to build two additional hangars to win more third-party business so that they account for over 50% of GMF's revenue, said Budihadianto.
The second option is to review GMF's portfolio, carve out parts of the business where third-party works are dominant, and set them up in a new independent company. That company can then be publicly listed.
"This will mostly be Boeing 747 overhaul work because Garuda's aircraft are still new and the majority of wide body overhaul revenue comes from third-parties," said Budihadianto.
He expects GMF to be listed within five years under the first option, and even sooner under the second.
Budihadianto also revealed that initial plans were for GMF to be listed in 2010, ahead of Garuda, but that was delayed when shareholders decided that Garuda should be listed first.
Garuda in February 2011 raised $530 million through its initial public offering (IPO), selling a 28% stake in the company.
Its CEO Emirsyah Satar also said last year that it plans to have an IPO for GMF within the next five years to fund the expansion of the MRO unit's facilities and help it become a bigger player in the business.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
