Norwegian receives much-needed loan

Norwegian has announced that it has a new series of owners, has completed its much-needed restructuring and has secured a US$271 million governmental support loan.

Over the last few years, the airline has been fighting numerous financial issues and was hoping to shift into profit in 2020, before COVID-19 struck the airline industry.

The uncertainty across the industry, the lack of passenger demand and grounding of its fleet resulted in the airline quickly running out of money and brought it close to collapse.

With a secure outlook now in place through bondholders, lessors and shareholders agreeing to a US$1.27 billion debt conversion and share sale. This has helped boost Norwegian’s equity which has met a key condition of the agreement from the Norwegian government.

“Now we can access the state loan guarantee, we can continue to transform the company,” said Norwegian’s CEO Jacob Schram.

The restructuring means that lessors AerCap will now hold 15.9% and BOC Aviation 12.67%.

Despite the challenges ahead over the next few months Norwegian now has a firm base to move into the future.