SriLankan Airlines to borrow $250 mln
National carrier, SriLankan Airlines is gearing to borrow US$250 million overseas in an effort to raise capital, officials said.
“We raised $150 million with Mashreq Bank in 2012 and we want to raise another $200 to $250 million this year,” Kapila Chandrasena, Director /CEO SriLankan Airlines told the Business Times.
He said this has been discussed with major international investment institutions over the past two months. He added that this year the national carrier wants to raise debt to further capitalize in a bid to enhance their product offering. For the national airline, this financing marks its second funds’ sourcing in the international syndicated loan market, after the Mashreq facility which is repayable over a period of four years. He said that SriLankan also has plans to spin some of its Strategic Business Units (SBUs) of into stand- alone entities. “Now most are supporting units. In time we want them to have their own P & L (Profit and Loss) statements.” These units include the maintenance and repair facility, the catering arm and training arm. He added that these entities are under capitalised but their potential as individual entities is immense. “We want to place a strategy to turn them around and make them profitable,” he said.