BANGKOK, 20 October, 2021 - Asia Aviation Plc. (“AAV”), the major shareholder of Thai AirAsia Co., Ltd. (“TAA”),  has unveiled a new shareholder restructuring plan worth Baht 14,000 million in capital, to be secured by issuing convertible bonds and new ordinary shares to both new and existing shareholders. Through this process, AAV aims to hold all shares in Thai AirAsia, while also enhancing liquidity for the airline.

Executive Chairman of Asia Aviation Plc and Thai AirAsia, Mr. Tassapon Bijleveld, explained: “As we gear up and ready ourselves for travel resumption post-Covid, necessary changes are required for our capital raising and revenue management strategy.  

“AAV has formulated this new restructuring plan to  provide the Company with both working capital and the liquidity needed to sustain operations in line with Thailand’s plans for reopening.  Reconsidering previous operational and capital adjustments and entering into negotiations with new investors, shareholders and creditors of both AAV and TAA, the new plan is expected to be implemented  within the first quarter of 2022 (“1Q2022”).

“AAV will increase its registered capital and offer newly-issued ordinary shares on a private placement, totalling approximately Baht 8,800 million. The revised shareholder restructuring plan will also offer AirAsia Aviation Limited (“AAA”) additional investment of Baht 7,800 million and individual investors up to Baht 1,000 million, by allocating shares not exceeding of 5,028,571,429 shares (with a par value of THB 0.10 per share).

“In addition, AAV will issue and offer the convertible bonds in an amount of Baht 2,200 million with a maturity period of not more than two years to two key investors, comprising of Bangkok Bank Plc in an amount of Baht 1,200 million and North Haven Thai Private Equity, L.P in an amount of Baht 1,000 million. The conversion ratio of 0.00175 convertible bonds can be converted into 1 ordinary share, and can be converted to new shares in the maximum amount of but not exceeding 1,257,142,857 shares (with a par value of THB 0.10 per share). In a strong testament to our resumption of services strategy,  these investors are seeing AAV’s long-term  growth potential and are ready to provide additional funding in the future.

“Furthermore, AAV will increase its registered capital and offer the newly-issued shares to existing shareholders of the company proportionate to their respective shareholdings (Rights Offering), in the amount of not exceeding 1,714,285,714 shares with the ratio of 5.7625 existing ordinary share to 1 ordinary share at the offering price of 1.75 Baht per share, totalling approximately Baht 3,000 million.

“Once the restructuring is completed in 1Q2022, AAV will hold all shares in TAA using capital raised through the fundraising.”

Mr. Tassapon elaborated that the new plan will simplify and accelerate funding while discussions have been held with  new AAV and TAA investors, shareholders and creditors, who have expressed confidence. He added that existing investors and shareholders will  also benefit from the accomplishment.

“The tourism and aviation businesses are now recovering and we continue to see positive signals for the future.  The Board has thoroughly considered all possibilities to formulate a new shareholder restructuring plan that will expedite TAA’s rejuvenation and reaffirm its market leadership.  From here, TAA will continue to increase flights and frequencies of services in response to growing customer demand.

“Importantly, we expect to return to 100 percent of our normal domestic operations within January 2022.  We are also looking forward to recommencing our key  international routes in the near future in light of the Thai government’s country reopening plan” Mr. Tassapon said.

For more information, please find the official announcement here.