Shareholders at Bamboo Airways (QH, Hanoi Noi Bai International) have rejected plans for a private placement of shares to raise the company’s charter capital, leaving the chairman, Nguyễn Ngọc Trọng, to postpone the measure to a later date.
As ch-aviation previously reported, the indebted carrier had intended to raise VND9.57 trillion dong (USD410 million) via the private placement later this year. The plan was to issue 996.2 million shares and raise the charter capital to VND28.07 trillion (USD1.2 billion), deploying the capital raised to restructuring debts and shoring up the airline’s balance sheet.
However, the plan was rejected by 56.4% of shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting on April 10, local media reported. Attending were 93 shareholders holding about 93% of the voting shares. The charter capital of Bamboo Airways therefore remains at VND18.5 trillion (USD792 million).
Nguyễn Khắc Hải, deputy general director of Bamboo Airways, had urged shareholders at the meeting to vote positively, saying: “The capital increase plan is only good for Bamboo Airways. We are in debt of nearly VND8 trillion [USD343 million], and if we switch from borrowed capital to equity capital the finances will be better in terms of the debt-to-equity ratio. There will also be fresh funding to maintain business activities, reduce debts gradually, and continue to bring in more aircraft for growth.”
Trọng said he would hold talks with the larger shareholders and submit a new resolution for increasing the charter capital at the next annual general meeting. He assured that the fleet was operating at full capacity, that in the first quarter of this year the company would almost break even, and that “Bamboo Airways will become profitable by 2025.”
An optimal time for the airline to make an initial public offering (IPO) will be 2026 or 2027, he added. This was a move the carrier last spoke about in 2021, before former chairman Trịnh Văn Quyết was arrested in March 2022 for alleged stock-price manipulation.
Bamboo Airways expects to take delivery of six to eight more aircraft this year and ten more in 2024-25, Trọng said. With the addition Ca Mau to its network later this month, the airline will fly to 21 of 22 airports in Viet Nam, he added.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, Bamboo Airways currently operates a fleet of 30 aircraft, namely six A320-200s, six A320-200Ns, four A321-200s, four A321-200Ns, two A321-200NX, three B787-9s, and five ERJ 190-100LRs. It has a further ten B787-9s on order. According to ch-aviation capacities data, Ca Mau will indeed be its 21st destination in Viet Nam starting from the last week of April. Only Vietnam Airlines currently flies to the airport at the southernmost tip of the country.
