Shares of Airports of Thailand (AOT) dropped 4.66 per cent to 56.25 baht per share during the afternoon break on Thursday after the company announced an assistance measure extension.
AOT traded as the most active value stock of the day at the transaction value of 1,759 million baht.
The airports’ company reported through the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) on Thursday that it approved the assistance measure extension to help retailers cope with the coronavirus pandemic impact.
Most airline businesses are still unable to fully recover and resume their operations due to the travel restriction orders, said AOT.
The assistance measure will extend the rental duration, lower service charges and adjust monthly compensation.
AOT has announced the assistance measure earlier in August and said that it expected revenue to decrease 42.21 per cent in the 2020 fiscal year.
However, the company is expected to gain an increase of 188 per cent of revenue in the 2023 fiscal year, according to the report.
Tourists downgrade
The lessening forecast of tourist numbers from the Bank of Thailand (BOT) also poses pressure toward AOT shares.
The BOT has cut the foreign tourists projections to 6.7 million from 8 million in 2020 and to 9 million from 16.2 million in 2021.
Thailand had 38.28 million of foreign tourists in 2018 and 39.80 million in 2019.
Analysts from Tisco Securities viewed the cutback in tourist numbers as the downside risk to the company as it hasn’t planned to manage the situation
“The decrease in tourist number will reduce AOT’s earnings by 2.7 billion baht per year, resulting in a loss in 2021,” said Tisco.
Tisco rates ‘Buy’ on AOT at the target price of 64 baht per share.