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May 18 (Reuters) – Ryanair will raise 1.2 billion euros ($1.5 billion) from a five-year bond sale later on Tuesday, memos from two lead managers seen by Reuters showed.
The sale comes after Ryanair posted a record annual loss for the year ending in March on Monday as a result of travel restrictions linked to the pandemic.
The company will price the bonds at 120 basis points over the mid-swap level, equivalent to a yield of around 0.92% according to Reuters calculations, from 150 basis points when the sale started earlier on Tuesday following demand of 5 billion euros, the memos showed.
It will be issued by the group’s main airline Ryanair DAC.
As concerns persist about how successfully the pandemic is being controlled, European travel companies including EasyJet , TUI Cruises and IAG have sold bonds to add cash to their balance sheets or refinance debt.
Ryanair’s group chief executive Michael O’Leary said on Monday the company has almost zero visibility for the rest of the year even though it saw a “dramatic spring-back in bookings” in recent weeks.
Ryanair will use the proceeds of the bond sale for general corporate purposes, an investor presentation seen by Reuters said.
The presentation highlighted that Ryanair also has an 850 million euro bond maturing this June and 600 million pounds ($851.52 million) of borrowing under the Bank of England’s COVID Corporate Financing Facility maturing in March 2022.
Ryanair hired BNP Paribas, Citigroup and Commerzbank for the sale on Monday, a previous memo said. ($1 = 0.8192 euros) ($1 = 0.7046 pounds) (Reporting by Yoruk Bahceli Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Barbara Lewis)
