Norwegian Air to exit bankruptcy after raising enough capital

Norwegian Air is set to exit its restructuring process after managing to successfully raise 6 billion Norwegian crowns ($718 million) in fresh capital through the sale of a right issue, perpetual bonds, and new shares, as stated by the airline on Friday. 

The low-cost carrier had been required to raise a minimum of NOK4 billion by the Irish and Norwegian courts to emerge from bankruptcy protection, a state which it had entered partly due to the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on the industry.

The courts in Dublin and Oslo had given Norwegian Air the green light to significantly cut its debt by converting it in stock as long as it managed to raise the aforementioned capital. The company is now expected to emerge from bankruptcy protection on the 26th of May. In a statement, Norwegian said: “The private placement of new shares raised 3.73 billion crowns and was significantly oversubscribed.”

Airlines and travel companies across Europe have been selling bonds in the past months to bolster their balance sheet and refinance debt. That has been the case for the likes of Ryanair, EasyJet, or the International Airlines Group, a holding which owns Iberia and British Airways, amongst others.

Norwegian Air has been operating a reduced domestic schedule during most of the pandemic’s course and is now in the process of slowly recovering part of its European network as prospects for intra-European travel this summer get better. Nevertheless, Norwegian has already announced it will not be resuming its long-haul network, with most of the carrier’s Boeing 787s having been returned to their respective lessors.

Source: https://aeronewsx.com/norwegian-air-to-exit-bankruptcy-after-raising-enough-capital/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=norwegian-air-to-exit-bankruptcy-after-raising-enough-capital