Asia Aviation has decided to walk away from a potential stake acquisition in struggling low-cost rival Nok Air.
“With respect to announcement of Asia Aviation Public Company Limited to the Stock Exchange of Thailand on February 25, 2019 regarding the clarification of news in relation to an acquisition of shares, please be advised that the Company shall not further proceed on such matter,” says the parent of Thai AirAsia in a brief stock exchange statement.
Asia Aviation gave no details for its decision. The news comes just five days after Nok confirmed that multiple parties have expressed interest in acquiring shares from its majority shareholders, the Jurangkool family.
Prior to its recent capital raising that closed earlier in February, members of the Jurangkool family collectively owned a 55% stake in the struggling low-cost operator. Thai Airways International is the second largest shareholder with a 21.8% stake.
On 1 March, Nok posted consolidated net and operating losses of Bt3.98 billion ($126 million) for 2018, more than double the Bt1.9 billion losses incurred in 2017.
Revenue for the year fell 3.1% to Bt19.7 billion as passenger yields declined, while expenses rose 6.5% to Bt23.7 billion.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
