Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) is aiming to raise up to THB44 billion baht (USD1.27 billion) from a share rights offering as it prepares to wrap-up a court-supervised business rehabilitation process and relist on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).
In a November 26 SET filing, Thai said the asking price for the 9.82 billion new shares it would offer existing shareholders would be THB4.48 (USD0.13), with each shareholder allowed to buy 4.5 shares for each share currently owned.
The rights offering subscription period will run between December 6 and 12. The airline will release the list of new shareholders and their allocations on December 19.
Thai Airways has already erased approximately THB55 billion (USD1.6 billion) in debt, having issued around 21 billion new shares priced at THB2.5452 (USD0.074) each earlier this month to creditors in a mandatory debt-to-equity swap.
At a November 26 media conference in Bangkok, Thai Airways CEO Chai Eamsiri said the additional capital would underwrite a strategy to take its local market share to 35% by 2029, among other things. Thai's current market share is 26%, having fallen substantially in the previous decade.
Part of the airline's plan to achieve this is expanding its network for both short and long-haul flights, focusing on the Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asian regions. Thai also wants to make better use of Suvarnabhumi Airport as a connecting point.
"This target is conservatively optimistic," said Eamsiri. "We believe in steady progress."
Thai Airways returned to profitability last year after ten years of consecutive losses. Pending the successful outcome of the share rights offering, it hopes to exit the business rehabilitation process in the first half of 2025 and resume SET trading shortly after.
