Deadline set for THAI creditors
A deadline has been set for individual creditors to recover their money from Thai Airways International (THAI), with applications for debt repayment through corporate bonds getting underway yesterday.
Applications filed by private individuals were received on the first day yesterday at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) office in Bangkok. The deadline for applications falls on Nov 2.
SEC secretary-general Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol said a total of 2,140 individual creditors hold THAI corporate bonds valued at 7.5 billion baht or 10.5% of the airline’s total amount worth 71.6 billion baht.
Individual creditors may also submit applications seeking debt repayments at THAI headquarters, or they can file them via the Legal Execution Department (LED) website.
Pattaraporn Vejrungsri, director of the department’s Business Reorganisation Division, said the LED opened the online filing of applications on Sept 14, one day after the Central Bankruptcy Court (CBC) agreed to look into THAI’s debt rehab case.
It is the biggest case accepted by the CBC since the Debt Rehabilitation Act went into effect in 1998. At stake is the airline’s total debt which stands at 352.4 billion baht.
It is also the biggest in terms of the number of creditors, at 10 million.
As of Sept 22, some 922 creditors applied for debt repayment via the LED website. THAI owes 1.2 billion baht to these creditors.
Separately, members of cooperatives which invested in the airline would seek repayment through their respective cooperatives.
Ms Pattaraporn added that after the Nov 2 deadline expires, the identities of the creditors will be examined and cross-checked by THAI and the debt rehab planners.
Any party disputing the debts must do so within 14 days of the deadline expiring.
She said the LED would review details and the amount of debt since it has a direct bearing on the votes to be cast on the rehab plan which breaks down the categories of creditors.
The debt rehab plan must be forwarded to the CBC by Jan 2 next year, or three months after the planners were formally announced. However, the submission could be deferred until March 2 next year, extendable twice by one month each time.
Once the plan is in the court’s hands, the LED will hold a creditors meeting in May next year when they will vote whether to accept the rehab plan. Creditors the airline is in greater debt to will have more votes. Ms Pattaraporn said categorising creditors is necessary because the method of repayment may vary from group of group.