Thai Airways plans B42bn share sale

Thai Airways International Plc plans to issue new shares worth at least 42 billion baht to creditors and other investors by December, a major step towards exiting court-monitored debt restructuring and resumption of trading on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).
The national carrier will offer 6.81 billion new shares to creditors under a debt-to-equity swap, according to a regulatory filing with the SET and the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The shares are priced at 2.5452 baht each, valuing the offering at 17.3 billion baht, it said.
Another 9.82 billion new shares will be for existing shareholders, employees and other investors in a private offering. While the company did not specify the price in the filing, it said in a separate statement that they would not be priced lower than 2.5452 baht each. The company expects to complete both the share sales by Dec 31.
The airline said it had also reserved 14.9 billion new shares for the mandatory debt-to-equity swap by its main creditors including the Ministry of Finance. The ministry will convert about 12.8 billion baht of its debt into new shares, while the remainder will go to other creditors, the statement said.
The carrier aims to emerge from its court-monitored debt-restructuring plan in 2025, five years after it filed for bankruptcy protection. It had posted losses from operations every year since 2013, which were worsened by the Covid pandemic that forced it to petition the Central Bankruptcy Court for protection.
THAI has benefited from a post-pandemic travel boom, helping boost its earnings and cash flows since 2023. The turnaround has prompted it to order a new fleet of Boeing and Airbus jets to expand its services to newer routes and locally.  
The airline aims to expand its fleet to 116 aircraft by 2027, chief executive officer Chai Eamsiri said, bigger than its pre-Covid size of 103. It expects to be operating 79 jets by the end of 2024.
“The debt-to-equity swap and new share offering will help Thai Air achieve its debt restructuring process by turning shareholders’ capital into a surplus,” Piyasvasti Amranand, chairman of the court-appointed committee overseeing the airline’s rehabilitation, said in the statement. Shareholders’ equity had a deficit of about 40 billion baht as of June 30 this year, he said.
The improving finances and capital-raising plan will accelerate the resumption of trading in the airline’s shares in 2025, which have been suspended since May 2021, according to Mr Piyasvasti.
THAI is expected to file a request to exit the rehabilitation plan with the Central Bankruptcy Court after February. Its shares are expected to resume trading on the SET in the second quarter of next year.
Under the rehabilitation plan, the company reduced employee numbers by half to about 10,000. It also cut back unviable and unprofitable routes and reduced its fleet from about 100 aircraft to 64 as of the end of 2022. It realised more revenue from sales of planes and other assets including its THAI Catering food division.
In the first half of 2024, THAI reported a net profit of 2.7 billion baht on revenue of 89.9 billion, which was an increase of 14% from the same period a year earlier.