A consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday moved a step closer in their attempt to recover debt from loans paid out to Vijay Mallya's now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines after the High Court in London upheld an application to amend their bankruptcy petition, in favour of waiving their security over the embattled businessman's assets in India, the Tribune of India reported.
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Thailand
Thailand's Nok Air has been granted a second and final one-month extension, until 15 May, to submit its rehabilitation plan, Flight Global reported. “The Central Bankruptcy Court has considered and issued a further order approving the extension of the submission period of the rehabilitation plan to 15 May 2021, which is the last extension of time as permitted by law,” the airline said in a 12 April disclosure to the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The airline requested the extension on 7 April, in accordance with Thailand’s Bankruptcy Act.
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Thai Airways International Pcl is challenging some $7.4 billion in claims from dozens of aircraft lessors and engine service provider Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, saying that it isn’t liable for the monies because they concern future expenses and were incurred after the airline received bankruptcy protection from a Bangkok court, Bloomberg News reported. Thailand’s flag carrier, which is undergoing a court-supervised restructuring to trim debt and return to profit by raising fresh capital, is disputing around 192 billion baht ($6.3 billion) claimed by 48 lessors including BOC Aviation Ltd.
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Thailand’s finance ministry, the largest shareholder of Thai Airways International Pcl, signaled its support for a restructuring plan that includes raising fresh capital, a temporary freeze on repayment of borrowings and slashing its workforce by half to return the debt-ridden airline to profit, Bloomberg News reported. The key elements of the debt rehabilitation plan are “quite acceptable,” Pantip Sripimol, director general of the State Enterprise Policy Office under the finance ministry, said Wednesday.
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Thai Airways International Pcl is seeking a capital infusion of as much as 50 billion baht ($1.65 billion) under a debt restructuring plan set to be submitted to a bankruptcy court to keep the flag carrier operational, Bloomberg News reported. The fund may be raised through equity, loans or convertible securities, said sources, who asked to not be identified before the debt plan is submitted to the court in Bangkok on Tuesday. The capital infusion plan will need to be backed by the airline’s hundreds of credit-holders and approved by the court, they said.
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Thai Airways International Pcl, the nation’s flag carrier in the middle of a debt restructuring, reported a record loss last year after the coronavirus outbreak ground most of its services to a halt, Bloomberg News reported. The net loss widened to 141.2 billion baht ($4.7 billion), or 64.68 baht a share, from 12 billion baht, or 5.51 baht a share in 2019, Thai Airways said in an exchange filing Thursday. The annual loss was the largest ever for a Thai company, according to data compiled by the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Revenue slumped 73.8% to 48.3 billion baht.
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Thai Airways International on Friday said that it had cut around 240 executive positions at the airline as part of its bankruptcy restructuring process, Reuters reported. The announcement comes as the company nears a deadline to submit its restructuring plan to a bankruptcy court for creditor approval and as the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic adds to the woes for an airline that has been struggling since 2012.
Embattled Bangkok-based carrier Thai Airways is to lay off 395 pilots as part of its restructuring and rehabilitation plan, Simple Flying reported. It follows Thai Airways Acting President Chansin Treenuchagron last month saying the airline’s reorganization was on track and progressing well. This round of retrenchment means Thai Airways will now employ less than 1,000 pilots. It’s another hiccup in a litany of problems facing Thai Airways as it struggles to avoid disappearing off the aviation map. The airline first sought bankruptcy protection in May 2020.
Siam Commercial Bank, one of the largest banks in Thailand and whose largest individual shareholder is King Maha Vajiralongkorn, said Monday it has secured a 26.49% stake in upscale grocer Dean & DeLuca by converting debt held in the U.S.-based company, Nikkei Asia reported. The stake acquisition results from a debt-to-equity option exercised for a $45.83 million loan extended to Dean & DeLuca. The chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a U.S. court last March.
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Thailand's government says it is tightening restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus as the country logged another 527 new cases, the Associated Press reported. Officials said Tuesday that foreign migrant workers accounted for 439 of the new infections, while 82 were Thais infected locally and another six were new arrivals from abroad who tested positive in quarantine centers. Thailand on Monday reported 745 infections, the most since the pandemic began.
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