Budget carrier Vietjet plans $84.5 mln bond issuance

Vietnamese private carrier Vietjet Air has approved a plan to issue VND2 trillion ($84.5 million) worth of corporate bonds in order to meet operating costs.

The five-year non-convertible bonds without collateral will have a par value of VND100 million ($4,300) each. The timeline for the issuance was not announced.

Vietjet said the bonds will be issued in the form of bookkeeping, through an issuing agent.

The maximum fixed interest rate is 12% per year for the first two interest periods. For the remaining periods, it will be a maximum 3.5% plus the reference interest rate.

The bonds can be redeemed 12 months from the time of issuance or in accordance with current laws.

The budget carrier recorded an after-tax profit of nearly VND173 billion ($7.37 million) in the first quarter of 2023, down 29% year-on-year, while national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines posted a loss of VND37.3 billion ($1.59 million).

It earned Q1 net revenues of VND12.9 trillion ($549.67 million), up 2.8 times year-on-year, according to the carrier's financial statement.

In Q1, Vietjet operated 31,300 flights, transporting nearly 5.4 million passengers, up 57% and 75% year-on-year, respectively. The flights had an average seat occupancy rate of 85%.

The total volume of goods transported by Vietjet in the quarter topped 14,800 tons, up 20% over the same period in 2022.

International passenger transport continued to be a bright spot, contributing nearly 45% of total passenger transport revenue and accounting for 30% of the number of flights and passengers.