Updates throughout with plans for listings, corporate background

By Danial Azhar

KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 (Reuters) - Malaysia's Capital A Berhad CAPI.KL named a senior banker as its deputy chief executive on Monday as the group looks to scale up its core businesses after spinning off its aviation arm to its affiliate, budget airline operator AirAsia X AIRX.KL.

Effendy Shahul Hamid, a former CEO of consumer and digital banking at Malaysia's CIMB Group, will help spearhead growth, including exploring a plan to list the firm in Hong Kong by mid-year, Capital A founder and chief executive Tony Fernandes said.

"We've appointed bankers and that could potentially happen in July or August this year," he told a press conference.

In January, Capital A completed the sale of its short-haul aviation business to AirAsia X, allowing the airlines to focus on expanding operations and reducing costs while Capital A looked to grow its businesses in logistics, branding, and aircraft maintenance, among others.

Since then, both companies have been badly hit by the economic fallout of the war on Iran. Capital A's shares are down 27% over the past month while AirAsia X's have plunged 41%.

Fernandes said the company was also aiming to list its branding unit, AirAsia Next, in the U.S. by the end of the year, reviving a plan that had been called off two years ago.

He said the listing plans for Capital A and AirAsia Next were dependent on the group's exit from PN17 classification, a tag given by Malaysia's stock exchange to financially distressed companies.

Capital A has been classified as PN17 since 2022, after incurring large losses during the coronavirus pandemic.