(SINGAPORE) Even as he waits for Singapore Airlines to make a decision on whether or not to sell him its 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic, Richard Branson could already be poised to take a substantial stake in South-east Asia's first long-haul budget carrier.

Speculation that the British billionaire might take a 20 per cent stake in Tony Fernandes's Fly Asian Express (also known as FAX or AirAsia X) intensified this week after AirAsia sent out media notices of a 'major announcement' involving AirAsia X.

'AirAsia X will be making a major announcement involving a strategic global investor. We promise you it will be a memorable one,' the notice said, without providing further details.

Company officials were tight-lipped.

Mr Fernandes's listed Air Asia Bhd is also expected to take a substantial stake in his privately held long-haul budget carrier.

Dow Jones Newswires quoted a source familiar with the parties as saying that Mr Branson and Air-Asia could inject a combined US$40 million in the start-up for 20 per cent stakes each.

The funds would come in handy as Mr Fernandes and his partners Kamarudin Meranu, Kalimullah Hassan and Lim Kian Onn have to pay for the 15 wide-body A330-300 planes the new start-up has ordered from Airbus.

FAX, which was launched in January this year, is scheduled to start long-haul low-cost flights to China and Australia using three leased planes. The airline expects to be profitable by next year.

'We will start flying at end-September or early October,' Mr Fernandes told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview. 'Our first destination will be Australia, followed by China, India, Japan and South Korea.'

The carrier also intends to start budget flights from Kuala Lumpur International Airport's RM100 million (S$44 million) low-cost terminal to the United Kingdom.

Interestingly, talk of Mr Branson's entry into the regional aviation scene comes as SIA mulls over whether or not to sell its 49 per cent stake in his Virgin Atlantic.

Analysts reckon the sale will likely be in the region of S$2.3 billion, resulting in a gain of some S$700 million on acquisition costs.

But SIA's exit from Virgin Atlantic could open the gates for Richard Branson to expand aggressively into the Asia-Pacific region. This is because, under the terms of its 49 per cent shareholding in the UK-based airline, SIA can veto the use of the Virgin brand in any international aviation undertaking.

While SIA has generally been liberal with the Virgin aviation brand expanding into other continents like Africa, and did not object to the establishment of Australian domestic carrier Virgin Blue, it has never been keen to have Mr Branson playing in its own backyard in the Asia-Pacific region.

As the Sydney-based Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation noted recently, the sale of the 49 per cent stake would 'remove the impediment for Virgin Blue using the Virgin branding on international routes', including its Europe-Australia kangaroo route.

Mr Branson has confirmed saying that he would consider buying back the stake in the trans-Atlantic airline from SIA, if the price is 'fair'.

It remains to be seen how all this will dovetail with his possible plans to now buy into Mr Fernandes' long haul budget carrier.

Given the two men's track records, the news must be somewhat disconcerting for some of the folks running the region's full- service carriers.