Lufthansa Seeks To Raise $445 Million In Bond Sale

Lufthansa, the German airline that is Europe's second in scale, has said that it may sell 500 million euros ($445 million) of bonds as soon as mid May in order to fund the purchase of new planes to boost its fleet.

The airline plans to sell five or seven year fixed rate notes if the ?market conditions allow? as soon as a few days after it releases first quarter earnings on May 15th, said Markus Ott, the head of corporate finance at the company.

?We might tap the market later this year,? selling the same amount of bonds the company decided not to offer last September after terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Ott said.

The company is trying to return to profit after posting a record loss of 591 million euros last year as passenger numbers fell after the September 11th attacks in the United States. Lufthansa agreed to buy fifteen A380 superjumbos from Airbus in December, an order that may have been worth $3.6 billion based on the catalogue prices.

Author: Neftegaz.ru