– Management has done an impressive job converting the company – E24

– The refinancing was bolted to motivate all parties to subscribe to the rights issue, which we also did, state manager Morten Astrup said in a statement.

The fund he manages, the Storm Bond Fund, is among Norwegian lenders.

The fund is also part of a group of creditors who are committed to ordering new shares in the current issue of shares.

– Impressive job of changing the company

Like the rest of aviation, Norwegian is badly affected by the crown crisis, and much of the aircraft fleet is grounded.

The airline itself has stated that they have around 7 planes and 200 flying employees in operation now. The company started the year with a fleet of 156 aircraft and more than 10,000 employees.

Astrup writes that Norwegian, by converting debt into shares and new shares, has strengthened the balance by around NOK 15 billion so far.

– Management has done an impressive job converting the company, which now appears as an option for the world to gradually normalize next year, which we consider highly likely.

– Later, client advances, which have historically been an important source of liquidity, will accumulate again. I think it is highly likely that the company will be able to close the liquidity gap that will occur in the fall with government-guaranteed loans if the crisis continues, he writes.

Norwegian has pointed out that today’s shareholders will be able to buy half of the shares in the equity collection, while lenders will be able to buy 25 percent.

Some of the creditors have also promised to order new shares for more than NOK 100 million, corresponding to 25 percent of the shares.

These lenders, including the Storm Bond Fund, have a so-called convertible bond, which is one of four Norwegian bond loans.

On the other hand, the reduction in the value of the convertible loan was somewhat less than initially proposed.

In addition, the bailout plan has a clause that lenders can sell some of the shares they receive in exchange for debt earlier than usual, if they also buy new shares.

Few Nordnet customers have asked for shares

However, among Nordnet’s nearly 29,000 clients who own Norwegian shares, few have ordered new shares so far, according to investment economist Mads Johannesen.

The figure as of Friday is only 230, he says.

Small investors have grown more and more in Norwegian, after large funds and investors fled stocks. Nordnet’s clients owned a total of about 17 percent of the shares prior to the implementation of the rescue plan.

Many have also lost money, after falling 88 percent since the New Year.

– I do not think it is of interest, it is probably because it has become quite complicated. It’s kind of weird that they don’t have subscription rights and make a kind of regular problem, if they wanted to bring in all the savers they were talking about, says Johannesen.

This is completely normal practice, according to Lasse Sandaker-Nielsen, chief information officer in Norwegian.

– The interest is excellent, many subscribe and there is still a full week of the subscription period. We prioritize the allocation to those who owned Norwegian shares on April 30. There are several alternative ways to draw. We’ve posted detailed information on how to draw on Norwegians’ websites, says Sandaker-Nielsen.

The company has pointed out that today’s shareholders will be assigned around half of the new shares. However, the acquisition of capital is not carried out as a so-called rights issue, that is, each shareholder is granted the right to buy new shares.

The reason is that it would take too long to pursue a rights issue, according to Norwegian.