Tigerair Taiwan applies for stock exchange listing

Tigerair Taiwan has applied to the Taiwan Stock Exchange to list its shares on the main board and hopes to raise more capital before international travel resumes in 2022, the low-cost subsidiary of Taiwan’s China Airlines has revealed. According to a list of such applications on the bourse’s website, the carrier lodged its request on December 28, declaring its share capital at the time of the application as TWD4b new dollars (US$144.2m). As per the rules of the stock exchange, the application said that “if the public has any opinions or doubts about the initial application for a stock listing for Tiger Airways, they may express them in writing before January 12.” The airline currently falls short of the requirements for the main board, which are stricter than for the bourse’s emerging stock board, as it posted a loss last year due to Covid-19. However, it should be eligible under relaxed listing rules for companies affected by the pandemic, the exchange told the Taipei Times newspaper. The revised rules mean that the review committee judges an applicant by its financial results from every year apart from the coronavirus-impacted ones. Tigerair Taiwan had said in December 2019, just before the outbreak, that it would debut initially on the emerging board - a preparatory market not open to public subscription - with the intention of moving to the main board in a formal IPO towards the end of 2020. This plan echoed a filing that China Airlines issued in July 2019 announcing that Tigerair Taiwan would file an IPO application the following year.<br/>