Romanian low-cost airline Blue Air will resume its plans put on ice during the pandemic. The company plans to issue bonds within several months after it exits the pre-insolvency procedures, hopefully in July 2022, and to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) within two to three years, the company's CEO Oana Petrescu said in an interview.

"If we close the procedure in July 2022, we may eventually come out with the bond issue we had planned for 2020. So, we would like to end the procedure in July and have a bond issue in October. We plan to tap the market with the bond and then, within 2-3 years - depending on the market and how fast we go through the procedures of the London Stock Exchange - list company's shares as well," Oana Petrescu said, quoted by Economica.net.

Romania's biggest airline by the number of passengers transported, Blue Air, initiated last July the preventive agreement, a mechanism that gives a company facing cash flow problems a chance to avoid insolvency.

In the meantime, it received a EUR 60 mln loan from state-owned lender EximBank, guaranteed by the Government.

The size of the bond issue will be decided depending on the financial needs at that time. The initial target (EUR 40-60 mln) was designed for a project that is no longer valid, Blue Air's CEO explained.

The company received the first Boeing 737-8 MAX in its fleet last week. The new aircraft stands for a turning point in the company's reconstruction plan after the unprecedented crisis that marked aviation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a company statement. 

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andrei@romnaia-insider.com