It’s been well advertised that the Duty Fee of AOT is currently undergoing a bidding competition.

So here’s what we know:

22 May was the deadline for submission of bids.

There were five companies that bid on the 22 May and these are:

• King Power Duty Free co (the current player)
• Bangkok Airways (BA) Plc (and potentially a JV with Hotel Lotte)
• Royal Orchid Hotel (Thailand) Plc (JV with Empire Asia Group and WDFG UK Limited) <= btw this is NOT Thai airways.
• Minor Group
• Central Department Store

Since then two players are out, Minor and Central.

The next step is for the bidders to present their technical proposals on the 29th May 2019 and AOT shall announce the winner by 31 May 2019.

Ok so this is all rather straightforward, anything interesting?

Yes, there are other commercial spaces at the Suvarnabhumi Airport that are up for bids. King Power, Minor and CPN (Central Pattana Plc not Central Department Co) submitted bids for the development of Suvarnabhumi Airport’s other commercial spaces, however MINT has already been kicked out for failing to demonstrate a track record in the retail business, but apparently they are requesting to be reconsidered and will learn about their new bid tomorrow.

There are also duty-free concessions at the other airports, specifically Phuket, Hat Yai and Chiang Mai. The firms bidding for these are King Power (current player), Bangkok Airways (JV with Hotel Lotte), Royal Orchid Hotel JV w/ Empire Asia Group and WDFG UK Limited and Central Department Store Co JV with DFS Venture Singapore Co. The bid submission is on the 4th June 2019 and the winner is shall be announced on the 10th June 2019.

So what?

Well AOT should make a nice little fortune. – remember that concession revenue is ~28% of total’s revenue

BA, MINT, ROH, and CPN are the four listed players that could benefit from this.