Air France-KLM has announced this Wednesday that it has finished repaying the balance of the state-guaranteed bank loans granted to overcome the Covid-19 crisis, that is, 2,500 million euros.
The Franco-Dutch airline group, which returned to profit in 2022 after two years of abysmal losses due to the health crisis, used “the 1,000 million euros collected from the bond linked to sustainable development (issued at the beginning of January, note of the publisher) and 1.5 billion euros of its available cash,” it said in a press release.
“Air France-KLM has reached an agreement with the French State and the syndicate of nine banks that participated in the PGE (loans guaranteed by the State, editor’s note) for the full repayment of the outstanding balance of 2,500 million euros”, as announced. during the presentation of its annual financial results for 2022, on February 17.
The group had previously repaid 1,500 million euros of the 4,000 million PGE from which it had benefited at the beginning of the crisis, in 2020.
covid page is turned
After having generated a net profit of 728 million euros in 2022, he claimed to have “turned the page” on Covid-19 that had made him lose 7.1 billion euros, and another 3.3 billion in 2021.
In addition to this return to green, Air France-KLM reached a turnover level close to that of 2019, with 26.4 billion euros, compared to 27.2 billion three years earlier.
“This full repayment will help smooth out the group’s debt profile, reduce financial costs and limit residual exposure to variable rates and marks a final step towards full repayment of the current liquidity support measure of the French state,” greeted the company this Wednesday.
Saved from bankruptcy by the French and Dutch states, and after two recapitalizations, the group emerged inherently more profitable from the crisis.
The management team carried out a cost reduction plan, getting rid of its least profitable aircraft and reducing its workforce to 75,500 full-time equivalents, up from 85,600 at the end of 2019.
The consolidation of the group’s finances will also mean the conversion of 600 million euros of similar values to own funds.
This development, which has received the green light from the Commission, will not change the capital structure, the French state still holds 28.6% of the shares.
The group will no longer have to respect the conditions that Brussels had linked to this aid: prohibition of paying dividends, moderation of executive compensation and limitation of acquisitions.
Source: BFM TV
