Thai Airways aims for stock market return by next year

Thai Airways International (THAI) expects to exit rehabilitation and be relisted on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) by the second quarter of next year, according to Piyasvasti Amranand, chairman of the airline’s debt rehabilitation administrator.
The development follows the airline’s record-high profits of 28.1 billion baht last year and a steady rise in earnings in the first half of this year, which Mr Piyasvasti said was due to a successful three-year rehabilitation.
He said the shareholders’ financial statement showed 40.42 billion baht in the red as of June 30 this year.
Mr Piyasvasti said the airline aims to write off the remaining debt in the shareholder financial statement through a new capital restructuring plan, which is a part of the rehabilitation.
He said that the plan includes a debt-to-equity swap programme and rights offerings, or the offering of additional shares to existing shareholders, which will prepare THAI for the targeted relisting.
Despite this capital restructuring, the Ministry of Commerce will still maintain its major shareholder status, he said, adding the restructuring is expected to finish this year before the airline’s new board of directors is appointed.
Under the new board, he said that the airline will file a petition with the Central Bankruptcy Court to exit the court-ordered rehabilitation and then be relisted on the SET, possibly by the second quarter of next year.
Chai Eamsiri, THAI’s CEO, said the airline’s capacity and strength have been maximised once again, considering various indicators, including available seat kilometres (ASK), aircraft utilisation, and cabin factor. ASK measures passenger carrying capacity.
Last year, the airline served about 13.8 million passengers, a 9 million increase from the previous year, while its net income was recorded at 165.49 billion baht in 2023, which was 105.21 billion baht more than that of 2022, he said.
Following these developments, THAI has developed a new business motto, “Fly for The New Pride”, which signifies the airline’s new ambitious goal to perform even better while sustaining business growth, he said.
“We are moving forward to sustainable growth with the help of professional business reform, which hopefully will regain trust among all Thais in their national flag carrier once again,” said Mr Chai.
THAI logged 12.63 billion baht or a 15.2% profit growth in this year’s second quarter.