AOT’s “Nitinai” Clarifies King Power’s Amended Terms, Affirming of No Disadvantages!

Mr. Nitinai Sirismatthakarn, President of Airports of Thailand Public Company Limited (AOT), has stated that the company does not give any discount in the new term of collecting minimum guarantee from King Power, and the decision over the matter does not require a shareholder meeting as the matter is an amendment in contract, which does not require the company to do so.

 

Kaohoon Online held an interview with AOT’s President, Mr. Nitinai Sirismatthakarn, broadcasted on Kaohoon’s channel on Facebook and YouTube on August 6, 2020. Mr. Nitinai clarified that even though the company waived the minimum guarantee payment for private operators through April 2022, AOT still collected a revenue sharing of 20% as usual.

As for private operators, except King Power, AOT will recollect a minimum guarantee on April 2022, based on the 2019 contract, and will only increase once the number of traffic returned to the 2019 level.

Meanwhile, AOT will not be able to use the same calculation for the minimum guarantee on King Power as its contract will expire later this year, and the one effective in 2022 will be based on the new contract.

Due to this reason, AOT came up with a new calculation, which is a minimum guarantee per head based on sharing per head and actual passenger volume, starting April 2022, and will constantly increase without a requirement for traffic to return to the normal level.

Mr. Nitinai stated that the new calculation per head derived King Power’s estimation of a potential revenue per passenger in each airport. Thus, 2020 should be the year that all travel and traffic will return to normal, and AOT would not be at any disadvantage regarding this matter.

 

“It’s better than King Power walking out,” said Mr. Nitinai in the interview stating that operators have the right, legally, to terminate the contract anytime due to AOT being the one closing the air travel, causing operators unable to do business. As for King Power, who bid for the concession with payment 50% higher than its competitor, Mr. Nitinai said that it is better than King Power terminating the contract and the company would not gain as much as King Power in the new bidding.

 

Lastly, Mr. Nitinai affirmed that the amendment in operators’ contract does not need to call for a general meeting of shareholders as it is an amendment of the contract, which indicated in the conditions regarding the matter.