Thai Air Gets Creditors’ Backing for Debt Restructuring Plan

[reader]

From Bloomberg News

Thai Airways International Pcl’s creditors approved the airline’s debt restructuring plan, paving the way for payment extension and unpaid interest waiver on at least 170 billion baht ($5.41 billion) of its debt.

The plan was backed by 91% of creditors at an online meeting, Kitipong Urapeepatanapong, chairman of Baker & McKenzie in Bangkok, the airline’s legal adviser, said by phone on Wednesday. Five people have been appointed as its administrators including acting Chief Executive Officer Chansin Treenuchagron and former CEO Piyasvasti Amranandthe, Thai Airways said in a statement after the meeting.

The airline in March proposed a three-year freeze on loan payments and a deferment of bond repayments for six years. To help it return to profitability after posting a record loss of 141 billion baht last year, Bangkok-based Thai Air also plans to cut its workforce by half, sell property and is seeking to raise 50 billion baht in new capital.

The issues faced by the airline have become more acute as the country has been hit by its deadliest outbreak of the coronavirus so far. Thailand this week slashed its growth outlook for this year, citing a delay in reopening borders to foreign tourists and slow vaccination. New cases reached a record this week, prompting a government’s plan for additional borrowing of 700 billion baht to fund new stimulus.

While Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha has rejected calls to extend direct financial support to Thai Air, the finance ministry as the airline’s largest shareholder has pledged its support for the restructuring plan. A lack of government support may make it difficult for Thai Air to survive the current slump in global aviation, according to Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation consulting firm Endau Analytics.

“I don’t think any national carriers in this region can survive without significant government support as well as 3-4 years extension to their aircraft leases,” Yusof said. “The flare up in infections is certainly working against the creditors too. The longer the pandemic goes the less chance creditors and lessors have of getting their money back.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-19/thai-air-gets-creditors-approval-for-debt-restructuring-plan-kov5c9t7

[PeterRS]

17 hours ago, reader said:

"The longer the pandemic goes the less chance creditors and lessors have of getting their money back.”

Yet again the government has brought this on itself. If it had listened to the medical experts and cracked down early with testing at the fish market, locked down during Songkran and been 100% compliant in its quarantine laws without permitting a child of the rich elite to get back from Cambodia without quarantine, THAI might well have been able to resume more of its schedule many months earlier than will be the case.