[THE INVESTOR] Korean budget carrier T’way Air plans to secure funds from foreign investors during its non-deal road show, which will be held overseas from July 11 to 15.

“It is true that we will hold non-deal road shows in Hong Kong and Singapore,” a T’way spokesperson told The Investor. According to the company, during its non-deal road show T’way will hold meetings with global hedge funds and investment banks, including Goldman Sachs.

Industry watchers expect foreign investors to find T’way attractive due to its quickly growing earnings. The Korea carrier posted an earnings surprise during the first quarter this year with 203.5 billion won (US$182.5 million) in sales, while achieving 42.1 billion won in operating profit.

T’way’s non-deal road show comes amid the company’s process for going public by the year-end. In June last year, T’way CEO Jung Hong-geun announced that the company aims to debut on the country’s main bourse KOSPI to secure fresh funding for purchasing an additional eight Boeing 737 MAX8s by 2020 to expand into new routes. T’way aims to become the first low-cost carrier in Korea to open flights from Korea to Europe and North America. Industry sources have projected T’way’s valuation to range from 800 billion won to 1 trillion won.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)