Air Macau shareholders mull cash injection – report

Air Macau (NX, Macau Int’l) will stage a general assembly of its shareholders on December 7 to deliberate on a capital increase through a cash injection, sources have told the Tribuna de Macau newspaper. It would be the scheduled carrier’s third such measure since 2009 and comes against the backdrop of a MOP539.5 million pataca (USD67.6 million) first-half net loss this year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite being Air Macau’s main shareholder with a stake of 66.9%, Air China (CA, Beijing Capital) is unlikely to bear the costs of the cash injection as it has not yet issued a stock exchange disclosure about the possible capital increase, the newspaper speculated. This means that the government of the Macau Special Administrative Region of China, which owns 21.5% of the airline, is likely to press ahead with the financial reinforcement with other stakeholders. The shareholders present at the upcoming Extraordinary General Meeting will discuss an “increase in the company’s share capital by means of new cash inflows” and amendments to articles five and six of its Articles of Association, which are related to the size and type of the share capital, the sources said. Air Macau refused to comment to the newspaper on the matter. Macau SAR became the carrier’s second-largest shareholder after it invested MOP700 million (USD87.5 million at the time) in a capital increase in 2011, raising its stake from 5%, cash that was used to update the fleet. Other Air Macau shareholders include the Macau Tourism and Entertainment Society (Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau – STDM; 11.57%), and, with smaller stakes, EVA Air’s Evergreen Airways Service (Macau) Ltd, investment holding IPE Group, the World Trade Center Macau, and insurance firm Companhia de Seguros de Macau. Air Macau’s loss for the first six months of 2020, on the back of a 75.34% year-on-year drop in revenue, followed a MOP82.6 million (USD10.3 million) profit for the same period in 2019. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Air Macau operates a fleet of six A320-200s, four A320-200neos, ten A321-200s, and one A321-200NX. It currently links Macau Int’l with 15 cities in China as well as Taipei Taoyuan. On November 27, it announced that it would add a second route to Taiwan, to Kaohsiung, in January. Air Macau was not immediately available for comment to ch-aviation.