Opposition People’s party deputy leader Sirikanya Tansakul has expressed concern over the government’s latest attempt to retake control of Thai Airways International (THAI), the national carrier, as the company is about to exit court-sanctioned rehabilitation and increase its share capital.
She is asking why the government is proposing the appointment of two new managers to the five-member planning panel, to replace two who resigned. The administration is proposing Polchak Nimwatana, deputy director of the State Enterprise Police Office, and Panya Chupanich, director of the Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning.
The three remaining managers are former energy minister Piyasvasti Amranand, Fiscal Police Office director Pornchai Thiraveja and former THAI president Chansin Treenuchagron.
Sirikanya said that, if the two proposed managers are approved by the airline’s creditors at a meeting this Friday, the government will have majority representation when it comes to a vote on the debt to equity swap, to reduce THAI’s accumulated 60 billion baht debt, and the reduction in its share price.
The debt to equity swap plan has already been filed with the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). The the next step is to reduce the airline’s capital to wipe out the accumulated debt, which is a normal practice for companies exiting a rehabilitation program, she said.
Since the government is the major shareholder in THAI, it is right for the government to have control in managing the rehabilitation plan, she said, adding “but it is wrong (in this case) because the planning panel should represent the creditors, not the shareholders.”
The government lent THAI 12.8 billion baht to help settle its accumulated debts and now it wants to have a controlling vote on the planning panel, which may be unfair to other creditors, noted the People’s party MP.
“THAI is about to stand on its own feet again, after having halved its staff, selling its aircraft and its properties and is now beginning to make a profit. Now the government wants to manage the airline again,” she said.
Sirikanya wondered aloud from where the government will get the money to buy new shares, to increase capital and to gain control of the airline, if it does not use taxpayers’ money.
She also said that quite a few THAI staff may dread the prospect that the government will interfere with the airline’s plan to buy new aircraft, as was the case two decades ago when THAI purchased a fleet of A340 aircraft and suffered huge losses by operating the fuel hungry aircraft on non-profitable US routes.
She appealed to the creditors to reject the government’s proposed planning managers this Friday.
