AirAsia is hunting for deals across south-east Asia to grow its nascent digital business, as the budget carrier seeks to accelerate a pivot to ecommerce and ride-hailing after being battered by Covid-19. AirAsia was looking at potential acquisitions in the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam after buying the Thailand operations of Gojek. The airline is also exploring merging its digital operations with a special purpose acquisition company (Spac), or blank-cheque vehicle.
This was not a one-off transaction. More collaboration with the Indonesian ride-hailing, food delivery and payments group. AirAsia was keen to tie up with other tech players in the region and had already received approaches from some.