Investment analysis: AirAsia Berhad

Investment analysis: AirAsia Berhad 1.0 Market analysis Before we can proceed further in deciding whether investing in AiraAsia is a good choice or not, we have to do a market analysis on the market condition of the airline industry. Our market industry is based on five main elements which are: 1. Legal Like all industries in the market, the airline industry is also tied to certain legal policy of the government so as to ensure the safety and the consumers rights. For the airline industry worldwide, the rules and regulation are set by the International Civil Aviation Organization and is revised from time to time. The rules and regulations are mostly about flights safety measurements and also the management of safety during flight such as making the providence of first-aid kit compulsory on every aircraft in case anything happen during flight. Not only that, the air stewardess and air steward must have basic knowledge of first aid. 2. Politics Politics play a major role in the performance of the airline company as well. Any political policy that is to the airline companys disadvantage will affect the performance and annual profit of the airline. When the very first airline company was established in Germany, which is Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft(DELAG), on 16 November 1909, it was under Germanys government service. But as the 20th century approaches, airline companies are ‘deregulated. Airline deregulation according to the Wikipedia encyclopedia is the process of removing entry and price restrictions on airlines affecting the carriers permitted to serve specific routes. Airline deregulation began in the United States of America in 1978 and from there exist the Airline Deregulation Act 1978 whereas for Europe, deregulation only began in the 1990s. Before deregulation happened, the airline company has to abide by the instructions of the government concerning the routes and the choice of which airports to land on and depart from. Whereas after deregulation, the airline company has the freedom to choose any routes that they want and whichever airports that they want to stopover at. There are pros and cons to the deregulation of the airline company. The pro is the airline company has the freedom to decide on the operation of the airline whereas the con is that the entry barriers for new airline entrants are lower. Thus, creating a more competitive market for established airlines. This is when the low cost carrier airline starts to appear in the market, such as Tiger Airway (Singapore), Jetstar Airways (Australia) and Pacific Blue Airlines (New Zealand). The appearance of these airways will lower the profit margin of the existing airways as Low Cost Carrier (LCC) airlines tend to price their airfare at the very minimum price as possible. Another political aspect is the existence of bilateral agreements between two or more countries regarding the authority of stopovers at different airports. Bilateral agreement is normally based on the concept of ‘freedom of thee air where it gives the airline the freedom or rights to fly in the air space of another country and also be permitted to stop at the airports of their choice. And sometimes, some country may even allow foreign airline to operate on their domestic routes, but this is very rarely to be found. This move by the government will remove many of the barriers to competition and allowing their own airlines to have foreign partners or code sharing partners. This will further increase the airline access to more international routes and also further exposed the airline to foreign countries. Both the airline deregulation policy and the bilateral agreements play a major role in determining the successfulness of an airline company. A policy set by the government may in hibit or aid in the success of an airline company. 3. Economics When we look at the economic side of the market, we will first look at the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the world. GDP is the value of all final goods and services from a nation in a given year. GDP is the best tool to use when accessing the performance of a country as it takes all the industries and products into consideration. A few of countrys GDP and the contribution of agriculture, industry and services to the total of GDP are listed in the table below. Country Growth rate (%) Agriculture (%) Industry (%) Services (%) China 8.7 10.9 48.6 40.5 Egypt 4.5 13.1 37.7 49.2 India 4.4 15.8 25.8 58.4 Nigeria 3.8 33.4 34.1 32.5 Thailand -3.5 12.3 44 43.7 Venezuela -1.5 4.0 34.6 61.4 America -2.4 1.2 21.9 76.9 Singapore -2.6 0.0 26.8 73.2 Malaysia -2.8 10.1 42.3 47.6 Source: CIA The World Factbook and Wikipedia Encyclopedia All the countries have different GDP, some countries may have negative growth and some countries have positive growth. This is normal as during 2008 is when the financial crisis happened. But not all countries did not benefit from the global economy downturn as some countries have positive growth rate for their GDP. This may be due to the fact that the countries benefited from industries that bring losses to another country which results in a tradeoff between the benefits between countries. The services industry contributes to most of the total of the GDP of the countries listed above except for china, Nigeria and Thailand. All three of these countries are more focused on industrial industry which may be due to the fact that these countries have more labored intensive industries. Thus, this shows that service industry plays an important role in the performance of a country and service industry includes airline industry. From the GDP of a country; we can look at the purchasing power parity (PPP) of the consumers. If the GDP of the country is low or is a negative value, this means that the PPP of the citizen is low and vice versa. The PPP of consumers can also be linked directly to the inflation rate of a country. As the inflation rate increase, the PPP of consumer will drop. Inflation rate will increase the price of goods in general as the demand exceeded the supply of the goods. Thus, decreasing the amount of extra money allocated for luxurious goods which also include travelling and entertainments. So the changes in the GDP of a country will affect all the industries, including the airline industry. There are times when not only the GDP will affect the performance of an airline; it may be due to natural disasters which include earthquake, tsunami and flash flood which have been happening quite frequently nowadays. All of these can disrupt the operation of the airline companies as facilities and airports maybe destroyed in the process. Thus, causing an airline company to face loss in the event of natural disasters. Another event that might affect the economic performance of an airline company is terrorism such as the event of the ill-fated day of September 11, 2001where American Airlines and United Airlines was hijacked. This had caused both airways to face huge losses due to the decline in value of the airways stocks. This can reflect the confidence of the customers towards both the airlines had declined extremely as an aftermath of the hijacking event. Below is the graph depicting the change in stock price for both companies. 4. Social As the years goes by, consumer demands are evolving gradually. The consumers nowadays want anything that is their convenience, cheap and can be done instantly without going through painstaking procedures. So as to accommodate the change in the demands of the customers, the airline company has to improvise themselves from time to time. Most of the airline companies nowadays have their own websites. This is to make it easier for the consumers to check the availability of tickets, the schedule of the airline and also enabling the consumers to purchase their ticket through e-ticketing. All of these are to the customers convenience. So as to attract more customers, some airlines are now practicing online check-in of luggage where luggage can be checked-in within 24 hours of the scheduled flight. Social and economic factors are closely related to each other as any changes in the market economy will directly affect the consumer behavior. As stated above under the economic factors, the event of financial crisis will affect the PPP of the customers as prices of goods have been increased due to inflation. In order to save more money, consumers will opt for cheaper goods. The same goes to the purchase of airfares. The lower the airfare is, the better it is and this even applies to business travelers travelling on premium class. This can be proven by a study done by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) where it shows that the consumers choice of seats have changed as the number of premium class travelers have decreased. This can be seen clearly from the graph below. The graph shows that the number of premium passengers had started to fall since july 2008 and keeps dropping until sometime in may 2009 before it the number of passengers travelling on premium class starts to increase gradually. Even though there is an increase of passengers travelling on premium class, it still takes time for the airline company to rebound back from the huge amount of losses that they have incurred. 5. Technology With the advancement of the technological changes in the world, the technology used by the airline company also improvised with time. In the past, whenever the customers wanted to buy air tickets, they will have to go to either the airlines office or any travel agency to purchase their tickets. But now, customers can just purchase their ticket with a click of the mouse. They do not even need to step out of the house, as long there is internet available. Advanced check-in can also be done through the internet 24 hours prior to the flight departure. All of these technologies are to the consumers convenience. Advancement in the technology of the airline industry can also be seen on the safety and the comfort of the aircraft. Aircrafts nowadays are more comfortable, safer and in-flight entertainment is also provided for long haul flights. This is very different from the olden aircraft where the main purpose of the aircraft is just to transport passengers from one point to another. Both the Airbus and Boeing Company are improvising their aircraft from time to time in so as to ensure that their aircraft is the best in terms of safety and also the comfort level. Airline companies in the market are also using the advancement in technology to implement risk management by providing good and reliable databases for risk analysis and targeting, providing faster and more effective business processes, more efficient recordkeeping and providing better services to the customers. 2.0 Airline Industry Analysis The airline industry had always been a highly regulated industry from the beginning of its establishment. The deregulation or liberalization movement initially started in the US in 1978. Governments usually treat the airline industry differently compared to some other industries due to the sensitivity of the aviation business, which involve some national security and sovereignty issues. In this report, Porters Five Forces Model is being used to analysis the aviation industry structure to provide an overall view of the industry. This is a well-established model, in which the industry can be simulated as a model influenced by five different factors called ‘forces as shown in Figure 1.1. A suitable dynamic interaction of these five forces shapes the basic structure to determine the profitability and attractiveness of the industry. 2.1 Industry Competitor The degree of rivalry is one of the most important factors that determining profitability of the industry. The market growth and number of competitors are some of the causes that will affect the industry rivalry. For the airline industry where its fixed cost is usually very high and the variable cost is low, competition is fierce as airlines are trying to generate revenue to reach break-even level in order to survive. Competition in the airline industry can be divided into competition between low cost carriers (LCCs) and full service carriers (FSCs) in both regional and domestic markets. There are 6 budget airlines in Malaysia which are Air Asia, Firefly, Tiger Airways, Cebu Pacific, Jetstar, and Lion Air. The competition among low cost carriers is usually fiercer as offering the cheaper airfare is utmost important for them. One of the main reasons that passengers choose to use a LCC is â€Å"cheaper airfares†. Since most of the low cost carriers do not have frequent flyer program to impose switching cost on customers, it is rather difficult for them to build up customer loyalty except constantly offering a cheaper airfare to retain their customers. On the other hand, there are a lots of full service airline in Malaysia such as MAS, Cathay Pacific Airway, China Airlines, Eva Airways Corporation, and so on. Thus, the competition between full service carriers is more complicated. This is because FSCs are competing in many aspects of their services, such as network coverage, flight frequency, and service quality and ticket prices. While the competition between FSCs and LCCs are mainly focused on attracting each others market as they usually have different customer groups. Customer base of LCCs are largely made up of leisure traveler while FSCs appear to be more attractive for business traveler. 2.2 Suppliers Suppliers are those who provide necessary raw material, equipment and labor for an airline to perform their daily operation. Suppliers strength can greatly affect the industrys profitability, if there is a high concentration in the supplier power, they can exert influence on airlines thus increasing their bargaining power. Major inputs for airline to provide their services to passengers are aircraft, labor, fuel and landing slots. The fleet is the most important assets for airlines to generate revenue. However, there are only two major aircraft manufacturers in the West, Boeing and Airbus, which almost monopolizing the wide-body civil transport aircraft market worldwide. Hence, the bargain power of aircraft manufacturers against airlines remains very strong, as the concentration of aircraft supplier market is very high. Some airline employees are considered as highly specialized and professionals, such as pilots and aircraft technicians. Due to their specializations, it is almost impossible for an airline to find replacements for pilots or maintenance workers in short time, which may cause an increase in the bargaining power of their employees over the airlines. In this regard, the labor cost is one of the biggest operating costs of most airlines. However, cutting cost is the main agenda of airline nowadays, and the labor cost is always the first to be the victim. 2.3 The Buyers Power The buyers power is defined as the influence that customers can have on the airlines revenue affecting ticket prices and service charges. If the buyers power is strong enough, customers can set the ticket price, and vice verse. Strong buyer power can bargain away potential airline profit and extract other benefits from airlines such as quality-improved services. Some of the favorable factors to strong buyers power in the airline industry are relatively low customer switching cost, low product differentiation, and freely available information on Internet. Nevertheless, the buyers power may be weaken by low buyer concentration or small purchase volume. Although fierce pricing war dispute among the airlines, it is notably that buyers do not play proactive roles in the pricing war. Current price impacts in the market is aimed to keeping the airlines competitors out of the market rather than providing the low pricing power of the airlines to their customers. Besides, travel agents, who us ually buy air tickets in large volume, yield greater power but they use this concept to strengthen their position in the market rather than transferring the cost benefit to costumers. 2.4 New Entrant â€Å"New entrant† refers to any new player in the aviation market which will compete with the incumbents. A key criterion to analyze the threat of new entrant in the industry is to analyze the level of entry barriers. Entry barriers are obstacles that may discourage others from entering the market hence affect the competition of the industry. New entrants will also lower the potential profits of the industry as a whole. Most common entry barriers in airline industry are regulation restrictions, labor, access to distribution channels and high capital requirement. However, the entry barriers to the airline industry had generally been lowered recently, especially on the regulation restrictions and distribution channels. The example of new entrant to Low Cost Carrier s is Firefly airline, which was growth recently and become a strong competitor to Air Asia airline. 2.5 Substitutes â€Å"Substitution† represents the threat that other industries or transportation may offer a product, which can replace air transport. The threat of substitution depends on the type of flight, namely long haul or short haul, and travel purpose such as business or leisure. For short haul and leisure travel, the main substitution threat in the Asia Pacific comes from surface transport such as road and sea transport. Even though some of the airfares from LCCs are lower than bus fare, but after paying for the airport charges and insurances, customers will find that generally the total cost of air travel is still higher than that of road transport. Although surface transport is cheaper in term of money, it still costs the passenger more in terms of time and efficiency. Furthermore, road transport generally will not compete with long haul travel, especially for cross nation traveling. On the other side, latest technology inventions such as videoconference pose a bigger threat for business travel. In the aftermath of 911, many worries that the airline industry will be substituted by video conferencing companies as they assumed that people will be less willingly to travel since then. However, the speedy traffic recovery proved them wrong. Although the international passenger flow havent returned to the pre-crisis level, but it seems the recovery is on the right path. 2.6 Low Cost and Budget Airline Air Asia Berhad Air Asia is one of the largest low fare and no frills airline. in Low Cost Carriers (LCC) industry which providing guests with the choice of customizing services without compromising on quality and services . It operates scheduled domestic and international flights and it is also the first airline in the region to implement fully ticketless travel and unassigned seats. On 12 November 2008, Air Asia abolished fuel surcharges. In doing so, it claimed to be the first airline in the world to abolish fuel surcharges. From this statement, we can conclude that Air Asia is successful to expand their market as well as they airline had flown 55 million cumulative passengers by 2009. In 2010, it has the worlds lowest costs for an Airline, at $3.21 per seat-kilometer. Air Asia is able to attract more customers in future since they can offer lower price tickets to flight around the world. Last but not least, Air Asia is a corporate that potential to growth among the LCC industry due to its competence strategy holding. This corporate was emphasize on leanest cost structure; transparency in decision making and information sharing; safety; invest and enhance the Air Asia brand to maximize shareholder`s value; human capital development; and passion for guest satisfaction. Hence, investor can be confidence with their performance as well. 3.0 Company Analysis AirAsia is one of the award winning and largest low fare airlines in the Asia expanding rapidly since 2001. With a fleet of 72 aircrafts, AirAsia flies to over 61 domestic and international destinations with 108 routes, and operates over 400 flights daily from hubs located in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Today, AirAsia has flown over 55 million guests across the region and continues to create more extensive route network through its associate companies. AirAsia believes in the no-frills, hassle-free, low fare business concept and feels that keeping costs low requires high efficiency in every part of the business. Through the corporate philosophy of â€Å"Now Everyone Can Fly†, AirAsia has sparked a revolution in air travel with more and more people around the region choosing AirAsia as their preferred choice of transport. AirAsia creates values through the following vision and mission. (Resources : http://www.airasia.com/my/en/aboutus/irorganizationalstructure.html?) 3.1 Mission †¢ To be the best company to work for whereby employees are treated as part of a big family †¢ Create a globally recognized ASEAN brand †¢ To attain the lowest cost so that everyone can fly with AirAsia †¢ Maintain the highest quality product, embracing technology to reduce cost and enhance service levels 3.2 Vision To continue to be the lowest cost short-haul airline in every market we serve, delivering strong organic growth through offering the lowest airfares at a profit. Leanest Cost Structure †¢ Efficient and simple point to point operations †¢ Attracting and retaining hardworking and smart people †¢ Passion for continuous cost reduction Maximise Shareholders Value †¢ Resilient profit growth through our lower cost base †¢ Expansion of the AirAsia network in a prudent and disciplined manner †¢ Invest and enhance the AirAsia brand to increase investors returns Safety †¢ Comply with the highest International Aviation Safety Standards and practices †¢ Keep operations simple and transparent †¢ Ensure the security of our People and Guests Passion for Guests Satisfaction †¢ Maintain simplicity in every application †¢ Practice the unique and friendly AirAsia experience at every opportunity †¢ Recognise the linkage between guests satisfaction and long-term success Transparency †¢ Transparency in decision-making and information sharing †¢ Optimum disclosure higher than industry norms †¢ Timeliness in disclosing information Human Capital Development †¢ Invest in both hard and soft skills †¢ Recognize all our People as contributors to our success †¢ Reward excellence and individual contributions †¢ Maintaining one brand across the Group (Resources : http://www.airasia.com/my/en/aboutus/irstrategy.html?) 3.3 Strategy (Resources : http://www.airasia.com/my/en/aboutus/irstrategy.html?) 3.4 Values 1.Safety Adopting a zero tolerance to unsafe practices and strive for zero accidents through proper training,work practices, risk management and adherence to safety regulations at all times. 2. Valuing Our People Committing to our peoples development and well-being and treating them with respect, dignity and fairness. 3.Customer Focused We care and treat everyone in the same manner that we want to be treated. 4.Integrity Practicing highest standards of ethical behaviour and demonstrate honesty in all our lines of work in order to command trust and mutual respect. 5.Excellence in Performance Setting goals beyond the best and reinforcing high quality performance standards and achieving excellence through implementing best practices. (Resources : Air Asia Annual Report 2008) 3.5 Logo 3.6 Motto â€Å"NOW EVERYONE CAN FLY† 3.7 Directors Biography Dato Abdel Aziz @ Abdul Aziz bin Abu Bakar(Non-Executive Chairman) Dato Sri Anthony Francis Fernandes (commonly known as Dato Sri Tony Fernandes) Dato Kamarudin bin Meranun (Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer) Conor Mc Carthy (Non-Executive Director) 3.8 Independent Directors Dato Leong Sonny @ Leong Khee Seong (Independent Non-Executive Director) Fam Lee Ee (Independent Non-Executive Director) Dato Mohamed Khadar bin Merican (Independent Non-Executive Director) Datuk Alias bin Ali (Independent Non-Executive Director) (Resources : http://www.airasia.com/my/en/aboutus/irdirectorsbiography.html?) Share Registrar Symphony Share Registrars Sdn Bhd Level 26, Menara Multi-Purpose, Capital Square 8 Jalan Munshi Abdullah 50100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tel: 603-2721 2222 Fax: 603-2721 2530/1 Corporate Broker ECM Libra Berhad Stock Exchange Listing Main Board of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad (Listed since 22 November 2004) (Stock code: 5099) Auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers Level 10, 1 Sentral, Jalan Travers, Kuala Lumpur Sentral 50706 Kuala Lumpur Tel: 603-2173 1188 Fax: 603-2173 1288 Audit Committee Dato Leong Sonny @ Leong Khee Seong Fam Lee Ee Datuk Alias bin Ali Dato Mohamed Khadar bin Merican (Resources : Air Asia Annual Report 2008) 3.9 Major Shareholders As of 12 November 2009, about 26% of the total share capital was owned by TuneAir Sdn Bhd. AirAsia is a substantially owner managed company, the cumulative ownership by the board of directors constitutes approximately 28% of the share capital. Shareholder name No. of shares owne What Is Atherosclerosis Disease? What Is Atherosclerosis Disease? Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory condition affecting mainly the medium sized and large muscular arteries in the vasculature. Research suggests that the role of statins as a cholesterol lowering agent is only one of their many pharmacological purposes, and that they can also be used in the treatment of inflammatory conditions such as atherosclerosis. A lot of funding has gone into this area of research as its predicted that in the next 15 years, it is expected that cardiovascular related events are going to be the main cause of death worldwide. Thus there is a greater need to consider novel strategies in management of cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. In the course of this essay I will attempt to describe how and why atherosclerosis is an inflammatory condition and how statins can be exploited as anti inflammatory agents in reducing the overall cardiovascular risk associated with the disease. There is a lot of laminar blood flow through the medium sized and large arteries in the vasculature which are the prime positions for atherosclerotic plaques to grow, making the blood flow more turbulent. This leads to the build up of ischemic tissue in organs where blood flow becomes limited leading to major vascular events as a consequence. The composition of this atheroma is the first indication that the disease is of an inflammatory origin as it matches that expected at the intermediate phase of injury. Also, as seen in other inflammatory states, monocytes are attracted to the site of inflamed tissue and differentiate into macrophages. This leads to an increase in production of inflammatory cytokines and an upregulation in toll like receptors. The plaque is largely made up of macrophages, mast cells, T cells, fibrin, collagen and platelets aggregates which indicate that the immune system has been activated to produce an inflammatory response to the insult. It is now also evident that the actual stenosis is less of a contributing factor to ischemia and that it is more of a result of the activation of plaque content, eg, macrophage and mast cells, which elicits the prothrombotic and procoagulant factors involved in thrombus formation. The role of cholesterol in plaque formation is considerable as macrophages found in the plaque composition are heavily saturated with cholesterol ester giving them their name, foam cells. Additionally, there is a lot more LDL in the circulation which has been proven to be pro inflammatory and is raised in atherosclerosis. Raised LDL in it self is a big contributing factor to the formation of foam cells as the LDL becomes oxidised and reduces de-novo synthesis of LDL receptors on endothelial cells and macrophages. Running parallel to this, CD34 scavenger receptors on these cells become unregulated so macrophages and endothelial cells engulf cholesterol and cholesterol esters in an uncontrolled manner leading to the formation of foam cells. These then set off a series of events leading to more foam cell production and plaque formation. This illustrates the important role cholesterol has in worsening the inflammatory processes involved in atherosclerosis thus foregrounding the need of s tatins to utilise their lipid and non lipid pharmacological mechanisms involved in cholesterol lowering as well as controlling the inflammation. There is a lot of evidence from experiments which link the involvement of cholesterol and inflammation in atherosclerosis. There is evidence which suggests that the presence of cholesterol results in an over expression of cell adhesion molecules, eg VCAM-1, ICAM-1 and E-selectin. Also, increased release of cytokines such as MCP-1 within the plaque as well as macrophages TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma and IL-1 which is all consistent with the inflammatory process. Additionally, mast cells are attracted and degranulated at the site of plaque formation. Other experimental evidence also shows that when cholesterol fed rats are treated with immunosuppressants; there is a reduction in the atherosclerosis. There is research into the possibility of there being some angiogenesis in the area which is consistent with the proliferative phase of repair involving the immune system. All of the above illustrates, with evidence, the inflammatory origins of atherosclerosis. Infectious agents are also associated with activating the immune system to produce a pro inflammatory response to a foreign organism. There is further evidence which illustrates that this is also true for atherosclerosis. There have been suggestions which say that infectious agents such as Chlamydia pneumoniae damage the endothelial cells in the same way as cholesterol. Infection with this organism can cause increased cell activation and expression of adhesion molecules as well as programmed cell death at site of damage. Also, there is increased cytokine expression in smooth muscle cells and the increased size of cells correlates to the neointimal thickening (plaque) associated with the disease. Overall, this leads to the recruitment and activation of immune cells such as leucocytes which are a major contributor to the inflammatory process. It was also shown through experimental models, that this infection causing the plaque formation can be treated by azithromycin which is a well es tablished immunosuppressant. All this evidence again foregrounds the strong correlation of inflammation in atherosclerosis. Now that we have established that atherosclerosis is indeed an inflammatory condition which can be exacerbated by high cholesterol and infection, the treatment strategy should therefore involve the use of statins for their cholesterol lowering and non lipid properties allowing them to be effective in resolving the inflammation. The conventional role of statins is the inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase enzyme which intern stops all the enzymatic steps occurring downstream of this enzyme to ultimately reducing hepatic cholesterol production. This leads to the inhibitory effect cholesterol has on LDL receptor synthesis being lifted so more receptors are synthesised leading to a greater uptake of cholesterol from the circulation thus lowering overall blood cholesterol levels. There is a lot of novel evidence suggesting the benefits of statins occurring before blood cholesterol reduction which illustrates that some other process must be involved. Apart from the conventional HMG-CoA reduction, statins also have non lipid related activity. They inhibit the production of mevalonic acid and isoprenoid metabolites which accounts for the apparent immunosuppressant activity of statins in atherosclerosis. In the case of inflammatory diseases, statins can also reduce smooth muscle proliferation, reduce over expression of ce ll adhesion molecules, reduce infiltration of macrophage and T cells to site of damage, inhibit antigen dependant T cell activation and reduce other inflammatory mediators such as IL-6, TNF alpha, C reactive protein and INF-gamma. Some studies have also shown the action of statins in vivo when an small experimental amount of 2ng/kg of LPS from E coli was injected into volunteers taking simvastatin or a placebo. The results of this study illustrated the non lipid effects of statins in response to insult as there was no change in blood TNFalpha in the group taking the statin which shows that statins have a role in affecting the bodys immune response to external insult. This clearly foregrounds the roles of lipid and non lipid mechanisms of action of statins in reducing serious outcomes related to the occurrences of cardiovascular events. In conclusion, it is clear from experimental evidence that atherosclerosis has been identified as an inflammatory disease. There is significant information to support the notion of using statins in a clinical setting for their lipid and non lipid effects to aid the over all reduction in the atherosclerosis and the role it has in activating an immune response. Therefore, statins can be used for their pleiotropic effects in inflammatory disease such as atherosclerosis to help alleviate the body of the inflammatory response related to the condition.