Thai Airways International (TG, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) has formally defaulted on a wide range of loans and debentures totalling around THB98.5 billion bahts (USD3.1 billion).
The airline said in a stock market filing that between May 27 and July 9, it had received letters from holders of seven batches of debentures notifying it of a formal default. The combined value of the debentures amount to THB85.1 billion (USD2.7 billion), which constitutes 34.7% of the Thai carrier's total liabilities as of December 31, 2019. At the end of the year, the airline had liabilities of THB244.9 billion (USD7.7 billion).
In addition to the seven batches of debentures, Thai Airways also defaulted on a EUR334.5 million euro (USD387.6 million) loan from the Thai Ministry of Finance. The government requested urgent repayment of this loan on May 22, shortly after Thai Airways was stripped of its status as a state-owned enterprise following the sale of a 3.17% stake by the Ministry of Finance to state-owned Vayupak 1 Fund.
The carrier also defaulted on two smaller loans: THB1 billion (USD31.6 million) from CIMB Thai Bank and THB500 million (USD15.8 million) from the Islamic Bank of Thailand.
Thai Airways underlined that while it had received notices of default, it would not try to settle the debts at this moment due to ongoing bankruptcy protection proceedings, which have put an automatic stay on all debts.
Thai Airways filed for protective restructuring on May 22, 2020. A court is scheduled to rule on whether to allow the carrier to proceed with its restructuring on August 17, 2020.
