United Airways to raise Tk 312cr to resume flights
Beleaguered airline United Airways will raise Tk 312.8 crore from six foreign firms to purchase seven planes and three spare engines.
The move will help the carrier resume its flight operations, which have remained suspended since March 5 due to the unavailability of serviceable aircraft. As a result, the airline had been desperately looking for funds from diverse sources.
Now, it will issue 31.28 crore ordinary shares of Tk 10 each to Singapore-based Swift Air Cargo, A-Sonic Aviation Solutions, Arctic Tern Aviation and Black Turnstone Aviation, Malaysia-based Phoenix Aircraft Investment, and Sterling Aerospace Ltd to raise Tk 312.8 crore.
In return, Swift Air Cargo will provide two Boeing MD-83 aircraft, while A-Sonic Aviation will provide another Boeing MD-83.
Sterling Aerospace will provide an Airbus A 340-313, and Arctic Tern Aviation, Black Turnstone Aviation and Phoenix Aircraft Investment will provide one ATR 72-500 aircraft each.
The lone-listed airline last week received an approval from the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission to raise the funds through private placement to parties other than the existing shareholders, according to a statement.
Private placement is a way of raising funds from chosen or select private investors without an initial public offering.
In Bangladesh's stockmarket, only an issue manager can sell shares under private placement on behalf of an issuer company.
Established in 2007, the airline had 11 aircraft in its fleet: two Airbus 310-325s, five MD-83s, three ATR-72-212s and a Bombardier Dash-8 100.
The aircraft were grounded for maintenance earlier this year but the airline did not have enough funds to do the required servicing, which is a matter of high cost.
United Airways has permission to operate domestic flights to Chittagong, Sylhet, Jessore, Cox's Bazar, Rajshahi, Barisal, Saidpur and Ishwardi.
On the international routes, it has permission to fly to Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Kathmandu, Kolkata, Jeddah, Bangkok, Muscat and Singapore.
On the premier bourse Thursday, each share of United Airways traded between Tk 5.2 and Tk 5.1 before closing at Tk 5.2. The airline was listed on the stock exchange in 2010.
Earnings per share of the airline during the July-December period of last year stood at Tk 0.07, down 82 percent from a year earlier.
The airline's market capitalisation stands at Tk 330 crore.
Sponsors hold only 5.02 percent stake in United Airways, institutions 17.43 percent and general investors the remaining 77.55 percent.
Also at last week's meeting, the BSEC approved the proposal of Aamra Networks to determine the cut-off price of its shares, as the company gears up to raise Tk 56.25 crore from public by using the book-building method.
The raised fund will be used for BMRE (balancing, modernisation, rehabilitation and expansion), establishing data centre, setting up Wi-Fi hotspots in different locations and repaying bank loans.
As of December last year, the net asset value of Aamra Networks stood at Tk 21.98 per share; the last five years' weighted average earnings-per share stood at Tk 2.52.
The BSEC also extended the timeframe by one more year for provisioning against un-realised losses incurred in margin and dealers' accounts of stock dealers and brokers.
In another development, the stockmarket regulator allowed Premier Bank and Bank Asia to raise Tk 500 crore each by issuing non-convertible subordinated bonds to meet their capital requirement.
The face value of the bonds, which can be issued only to financial institutions and high-net-worth individual investors through private placement, will be Tk 1 crore per unit.