"Today, we are below 30% and do not plan to go above 30%, unless there was a new major economic disaster which would lead the State to come to the aid of Air France -KLM ”, explained the Commissioner for State Investments, Martin Vial, on the air at BFM Business.
The Franco-Dutch group, very hard affected by the Covid-19 crisis like the entire world aviation sector, on Monday completed a capital increase of just over one billion euros, of which 593 million were provided by the French State.
Martin Vial, (Commissioner for State
Investments
): "The State does not plan to take control of Air France [...] unless there is another major economic disaster"
🎙 @chrisjaku pic .twitter.com / SDCsnGLXwX
- Good Morning Business (@goodmorning_biz) April 21, 2021
As a result, the French state holds 28.6% of the airline's capital.
The State has also agreed to convert three billion euros in direct loans into quasi-equity, allowing the group's debt to be reduced accordingly, which reached more than 11 billion euros at the end of 2020.
The group's situation remains worrying
Air France-KLM also announced this Wednesday morning that it had proceeded "successfully" to the issue of 3 billion euros of bonds without repayment maturity which were "entirely subscribed by the State".
The objective of this refinancing of Air France is to help regain some financial credibility in order to be able to return to the markets for financing.
Still, the situation is still worrying.
The group, in the red of 7.1 billion euros in 2020, continues to lose money due to the persistent slump in the airline sector, especially in Europe and on long-haul routes.
He warned that its operating loss would reach 1.3 billion euros in the first quarter of 2021.
In the event of another hard blow, Martin Vial felt that the vocation of the State was not to take control of the company. "The other operations that could be carried out to strengthen own funds could be carried out through different types of instruments", he insisted, adding: "if there are pure capital instruments, well we will go. first, the company will look for private investors first. "
