Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi) is planning to raise capital from the markets through debt rather than equity investments as it prepares for increased investments related to fleet expansion, Senior Vice-President (Finance) Stephen Barnes said during the annual investors briefing on May 17, 2018.
"We have no plans to raise equity from the market. We don’t foresee a need in the foreseeable future based on our current commitments, but it is true that we will be raising more debt from the market and so our leverage will rise," Barnes explained.
The Singapore Airlines Group has already been raising capital from the markets last year. As of March 31, 2018, its net debt stood at SGD3.13 billion dollar (USD2.34 billion), up from SGD1.57 billion the year before.
On April 6, the group's low-cost unit Scoot raised a further SGD480 million dollar via a secured term loan from banks on a fixed interest of 2.924% per annum and repayable over 10 years.
The group plans to add a total of nineteen aircraft between the end of March 2018 and the end of March 2019, split between Singapore Airlines, Scoot, and SilkAir.
