Korea’s Air Busan to raise $217mn in issue; trading resumes

Air Busan (BX, Busan) plans to conduct a large-scale capital increase in the second half of the year, selling stocks to raise KRW250 billion won (USD217 million) and deploying the proceeds to finance its operations.

The regulatory filing came as Air Busan shares resumed trading on the KRX exchange on July 16. Trading in the Asiana Airlines (OZ, Seoul Incheon) subsidiary had been suspended on May 26 on the grounds of capital erosion and also as part of a probe into Park Sam-koo, former chairman of Asiana parent Kumho Asiana Group.

In the stock offering, Air Busan will issue around 111.85 million common shares at a price of KRW2,235 (USD1.94) per share after an allocation to the company’s shareholders. Asiana Airlines said it would acquire 43,782,819 shares for about KRW97.9 billion (USD85 million).

The majority of the low-cost carrier’s shares, about 54%, are free-floating. After the stock acquisition, Asiana’s stake in Air Busan will rise to 40%. The expected date of the acquisition is October 1.

Air Busan said that for trading to resume, it had participated in a review which the Korea Exchange had carried out, and as a result, it had “prepared measures to secure management transparency and protect shareholders’ rights to prevent recurrence.” This included establishing an audit committee within the board of directors.

Air Busan and Air Seoul (RS, Seoul Incheon), both LCC units of Asiana Airlines, have already received KRW80 billion (USD69 million) and KRW30 billion (USD26 million) in financial aid from their parent this year.