Thai Airways’ stake in Nok Air has been diluted from 16% to 13.3% after the budget operator completed a Bt1.55 billion ($49.7 million) capital-raising exercise.
In a 18 February disclosure, the Thai flag carrier says it waived the right to subscribe to 142 million Nok shares, which were priced at Bt2.50 each and would therefore have cost Bt354 million.
Nok’s share exercise, which ended on 7 February, followed an extraordinary general meeting in January, at which shareholders gave approval for the issuance of 888 million new shares to raise the registered capital from Bt3.31 billion to Bt4.2 billion.
In this exercise, existing shareholders were allocated one new share for every 3.5 held. The price, at Bt2.50 per share, represents a premium over the Bt1.77 price at which the stock was trading when the market closed on 18 February.
Out of the 888 million shares that were allocated, around 621 million were taken up.
Last year, Nok raised Bt2.3 billion when it undertook a similar exercise. Thai likewise waived its right to subscribe to those shares, and its Nok stake was diluted from 21.8% to 16%.
