By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- Shares in Tui (ETR:TUI1n) fell by 10% at the open on Friday after the German-based tour operator launched a steeply discounted rights issue to help it repay pandemic-era government aid.
The company said it will raise €1.8 billion in new equity, at a price of €5.55 a share, a discount of nearly 40% to Thursday's closing price.
Tui will spend €750 million to repay all its outstanding obligations to the WSF, a German government vehicle set up in early 2020 to disburse liquidity support to companies hurt by the pandemic. It will also repay €440M drawn under a €750M credit facility with development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau. This will allow it to reduce the size of its facility with KfW by just under half to €1.1B.
The remaining €568M in proceeds will be used to pay down current borrowings under its other credit facilities.
"Today's announced capital increase and significant return of government funding allows for a considerable improvement in TUI's credit metrics and reduces ongoing interest costs, allowing the Group to focus on growth and further market recovery," the group said in a statement.
The company didn't add much about the ongoing state of operations, other than to confirm the "encouraging booking momentum" that it reported last month.
The rights issue, which will offer existing shareholders eight new shares for every three they hold, will significantly dilute the Russian steel billionaire Alexei Mordashov, who is subject to western sanctions and barred from the offering. Mordashov's stake will fall from just over 30% currently to a little over 10%.
By 04:45 ET (08:45 GMT), Tui stock had recovered a little to trade down only 6.3%.