(Reuters) - Finnair (HE:FIA1S) plans to raise 500 million euros through a rights offering that would be almost as large as its current equity, it said on Wednesday after reporting deepening first-quarter losses.
The airline said it had started preparations for the offering, with Citigroup (N:C) and Nordea (HE:NDAFI), signed up as lead managers. Finnair stock was worth a total of 546 million euros at Tuesday's close.
"The coronavirus is a major blow to global aviation and to Finnair," Chief Executive Topi Manner said in a statement.
"We want to ensure with this share issue that Finnair is a competitive airline in the future."
The company's liquid cash funds were at 833 million euros at the end of March, he added.
Finnair's first-quarter loss per share widened to 1.14 euros from 0.33 euros a year earlier. Analysts had forecast a loss of 0.60 euros per share, according to Refinitiv data.
On March 16 Finnair issued its second profit warning in three weeks, saying it would report a substantial comparable operating loss for 2020 because it was cutting about 90% of normal capacity from the beginning of April in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Finnair said it expects to lose about 2 million euros a day throughout the second quarter before an expected gradual recovery of air traffic from the beginning of July.