Singapore Airlines raises $600m in US dollar bond issue

Singapore Airlines Group launched a new seven-year US dollar-denominated bond offering on January 12. It later confirmed that the issuance had raised USD600 million and said that the bond had been oversubscribed, with final demand reaching more than USD1.2 billion.

The news agency Reuters had reported the previous day, citing two anonymous sources close to the matter, that the Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi) parent was looking to raise between USD500 million and USD750 million in the yet-to-be-announced bond deal.

The bonds, which carry an annual coupon of 3.375%, are expected to be issued on January 19 at an issue price of 99.273% of their principal amount, and will mature in January 2029.

The issue consists of a single tranche and the company plans to deploy the proceeds towards acquiring new aircraft, meeting fleet-related payments, and refinancing some of its existing debt. The issuance has the classification Reg S, which means the bonds can only be purchased by investors outside the United States.

This is only the second bond offering from the company in US dollars. The first was conducted in January 2021, an oversubscribed issuance five-and-a-half-year bonds in which it succeeded in raising USD500 million.

It then announced, in May, that it would raise a further SGD6.2 billion Singaporean dollars (USD4.7 billion) from its shareholders through mandatory convertible bonds.

Singapore Airlines said that inclusive of the latest bond issue it had so far raised around SGD22.4 billion Singapore dollars (USD16.65 billion) in additional liquidity since the start of the pandemic.