Forbes Asia picks Tony Fernandes as its 2010 BOY
By Ven Sreenivasan
FORBES Asia has named AirAsia founder and CEO Tony Fernandes as its 2010 Businessman of the Year.
Commenting on the award being conferred on Mr Fernandes, Tim Ferguson, editor of Forbes Asia, said: 'The competition was tough, including from leaders of Forbes Asia's Fabulous 50 companies. Although several mainland Chinese entrepreneurs fully came into their own this year, in general they are still excelling in a single national market that is subject to domestic booms and busts. Fernandes is expanding his business outward.'
The 46-year-old, a former record company executive, took over Malaysia's then-ailing AirAsia in 2001 and relaunched it as a no-frills airline.
Today, AirAsia has become the region's largest low-cost carrier, with nearly 8,000 employees, 100 planes and 140 routes - including 40 that no airline had served before.
The Kuala Lumpur-listed airline saw first-half revenue grow 18 per cent year on year to US$562 million, while net profits grew 24 per cent to US$131 million. The company may pay its first dividend this year.
Meanwhile, offshoots in Thailand and Indonesia have turned profitable, and could be headed for separate listings in Bangkok and Jakarta respectively within the next few years.
In 2007, Mr Fernandes launched AirAsia X, the group's long-haul budget airline whose other shareholders include Air Canada's Robert Milton, Richard Branson's Virgin Group, Bahrain's Manara Consortium and Japan's Orix group. AirAsia X competes against Malaysia Airlines on services from Kuala Lumpur to Australia, Tokyo, Seoul, Jeddah, Teheran, London and, soon, Paris.
Forbes traces Mr Fernandes' youth from the age of six, when he used to play the piano for guests at tupperware sales parties hosted by his mother, before heading to a boarding school in England at the age of 12 at Surrey's Epsom College.
With air tickets home being prohibitively expensive, Mr Fernandes spent holidays in London, mostly at Heathrow Airport, plane spotting.
'My friends and I used to stand on top of the Queen's Building, Car Park 2, and just watch planes land,' Mr Fernandes told Forbes.
Mr Fernandes' imagination was caught by Europe's first no-frills carrier, Skytrain, launched by Freddy Laker.
'I loved the Laker idea. I thought, I should take that to Asia,' he said.
He did, after spending 14 years in the music industry - first in London as financial controller at Mr Branson's Virgin Group, then in Kuala Lumpur as head of Warner Music's South-east Asia operations.
In 2007, Mr Fernandes launched Tune Hotels, billed as 'five-star rooms at one-star prices'.
Behind the hotels stands the privately held Tune Group, which expanded into Tune Talk, Tune Money and Tune Sports. Mr Fernandes owns Formula One team Lotus Racing. He is also rolling out South-east Asia's first international professional basketball league, The Asean Basketball League.
Mr Fernandes is optimistic as he reflects on his success.
'I'm very lucky. I've been involved in everything I'm very passionate about. Sports. Formula One. The Asean Basketball League. Music. Aviation. Education. So I'm a lucky man. I can't say that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow I'd have any regrets. I'm happy. I would have done a lot of what I said I was going to do.'
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