Latvian airline Air Baltic has issued a €200 million ($223 million) unsecured bond, raising its liquidity to refinance debt.
The five-year fixed-rate notes priced on 23 July and carry a 6.75% coupon, Bloomberg data shows.
“We expect the company to use the proceeds from the issuance mainly to strengthen its liquidity and refinance its existing bank debt,” writes S&P Global Ratings, which rates the notes ‘BB-‘. “We also expect the company to use the issuance to pay down financial liability to Riga Airport. This sum is due by the end of 2019.”
“We view the transaction as transformative and an essential prerequisite for our preliminary ‘BB-’ issuer credit rating,” S&P says in the 10 July report. The agency gave the airline an initial credit rating of ‘BB-” on 18 June.
JPMorgan and SEB are joint bookrunners, according to Bloomberg data.
Low-cost carrier Air Baltic operates a fleet of 37 aircraft, comprising Boeing 737s, Airbus A220s and Bombardier Q400s, Cirium’s Fleets Analyzer shows. It has orders for a further 31 A220s delivering through 2022.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
