Irish budget airline Ryanair sold €850 million bond, its first since 2017. The low-cost carrier’s bond sale indicates that European debt markets are slowly reopening to airlines, which have withstood the initial COVID-19 kick.
On September 8, 2020 Ryanair became the second European airline to issue a bond sale since the pandemic began. However, Ryanair’s bond sale, worth €850 million, is four times greater than the hybrid bond sale of €200 million made by Finnar in August 2020.
During the economic downturn, Ryanair has strongly held onto investment-grade ratings, shows the airline’s financial quarter report of 2020. Investors exceeded the company’s expectations fivefold as they put in €4.4 billion of orders for the bond.
Financial report for the year of 2020 also shows that Ryanair aims to state itself as having the strongest balance sheet in the industry and declares a stable liquidity with over €3.9 billion of cash and aircraft worth almost €7 billion.
The carrier shows its determination to use the current market situation for its own benefit and jump ahead of its competitors. Earlier on September 3, 2020, the company boosted its equity state by €400 million from shareholders and seeks to significantly shrink the risk of its debt repayments over the next 12 months.