Ryanair in $1bn bond issue, $470mn share placement

Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int’l) launched and sold an EUR850 million euro (USD1 billion) bond on September 7, which was more than five times oversubscribed, and also raised EUR400 million (USD470 million) in a share placement on September 3, shoring up the company’s balance sheet. This was its first euro-bond sale since 2017, and the fact that investors put in EUR4.4 billion (USD5.2 billion) worth of orders for it was a sign that debt markets in Europe are starting to reopen to airlines, according to Reuters. It was the second bond issue by a European airline since the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on passenger travel. As previously reported, Finnair (AY, Helsinki Vantaa) issued a hybrid bond on August 27. Ryanair’s earlier share placement was via a “non-pre-emptive placing of new ordinary shares […] in the capital of the company to institutional investors and certain others,” the airline said in a stock exchange filing the day after the placing. A total of 35,242,291 new ordinary shares were placed, raising gross proceeds at just over the EUR400 million mark. These shares represent around 3.2% of the company’s issued share capital before the placing. “Certain directors and members of the senior management team” also participated in the placement, buying 1,444,101 new shares at the placing price, Ryanair said in its statement. The airline said that the money raised was likely to “create opportunities for Ryanair to grow its network, and expand its fleet, to take advantage of lower airport and aircraft cost opportunities that are likely to arise.” It added that the placing “is expected to help better position the group to move quickly to capitalise on such opportunities should they arise [and] should significantly de-risk the group’s debt repayments over the next 12 months.”