Lisbon, Oct. 28, 2024 (Lusa) - Portugal's flag carrier TAP will meet with international investors on Monday and Tuesday, according to Bloomberg, as it prepares to issue €350 million in debt with a five-year maturity.

According to the agency, there is a meeting with global investors scheduled for today and virtual meetings today and Tuesday.

The aim is to refinance existing debt, namely a €375 million bond line maturing in September, placed with international institutional investors and with a fixed annual interest rate of 5.625%.

According to a statement, last week, the state decided to reduce TAP's share capital from €980 million to €313.6 million to allow the carrier to proceed with a bond issue.

In the note to investors, published on the airline's website, TAP announced that "in order to enable TAP to access the capital markets and proceed with a bond issue during the 2024 financial year", the Directorate-General for Treasury and Finance (DGTF), as the company's sole shareholder, decided to "approve a reduction in TAP's share capital from the current €980,000,000 to €313,600,000".

This operation will be carried out "by reducing the nominal value of the shares from the current €5 per share to €1.60, of which €323,400,000 will be for loss absorption and €343,000,000 euros for the special purpose of extinguishing the Portuguese Republic's obligation to pay the last instalment of the share capital subscribed by it on 27 December 2022, in return for the Portuguese Republic assuming the obligation to pay the same amount by 18 December 2024 as ancillary instalments subject to the supplementary capital instalments regime, within the scope of the capital reinforcement operation provided for previously and without any additional liability for the State resulting from it."

The DGTF also decided to "set at €400,000,000 the maximum limit that may be decided by the Board of Directors of TAP, during the calendar year 2024, for the issue of bonds or other securities by TAP".

MPE/ADB // ADB.

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