Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (SET: AOT) would lose over 1,000 million baht in revenue from the reclamation of commercial areas from King Power in order to improve additional airport facilities at Suvarnabhumi Airport and Phuket International Airport.
AOT wrote in a statement that the Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport Audit Report of Skytrax, the world’s leading aviation research and consultancy firm with expertise in analysing service quality of airlines and airports around the world, suggested that AOT expedite improvements and developments of the areas inside Concourses and Midfield Satellite 1 (SAT-1) at Suvarnabhumi Airport.
This is to provide additional airport facilities following the new airport operations standards while satisfying passenger needs and exceeding passenger expectations of services, and to achieve the goals of AOT and the government to upgrade Suvarnabhumi Airport to rank among the world’s top 50 airports by 2025 and the top 20 within the next 5 years.
AOT noted that the Airport Service Quality Strategy Committee viewed that congestion has been a current problem inside Passenger Terminal at Phuket International Airport and then recommended that AOT alleviate congestion by undertaking improvements of the areas inside Passenger Terminal for airport operations as well as improvements and developments of additional airport facilities offered for passengers.
For such reasons, AOT deemed it appropriate to allocate the areas at Suvarnabhumi Airport and Phuket International Airport for improvements, comprising certain commercial areas of a concessionaire, namely King Power Duty Free Company Limited, and certain office areas of government agencies.
The reclamation of those areas might cause a decrease of approximately 1.015 million baht per month in office and state property rent and a decrease of approximately 74 million baht and 19 million baht per month in minimum guarantee for the 2024 – 2025 contract years at Suvarnabhumi Airport and Phuket International Airport, respectively.
CGS International Securities (Thailand) estimated negative impacts on profit to be around 1% for FY24 and 3-5% for FY25F based on its forecasts. The brokerage firm also does not rule out other additional measures that could result in further reductions of minimum guarantee.
Meanwhile, Bualuang Securities also came up with the same number as CGSI with a 1% loss in bottom line this fiscal year and about 4% in FY2025.
According to LSEG consensus, AOT is expected to record 21,151 million baht in net profit this fiscal year.
The share price of AOT plunged 5% to THB57.25 per share as of 10:45 local time in Thailand on Monday after the disclose of reclamation statement.
