SriLankan Airlines plans dollar bond for refleeting pre-payments: rated ‘B+’: S&P

June 17, 2014 (LBO) - A planned 5-year government guaranteed international bond SriLankan Airlines has been rated 'B+', the same as Sri Lanka's sovereign rating, Standard & Poor's said. Bloomberg newswires, a news agency, citing an unnamed source said Standard Chartered has been hired by SriLankan to organize meeting with investors in Asia and Europe from tomorrow and bond sales may follow.

S&P said SriLankan Airlines is 92.1 percent owned by the government of Sri Lanka and state controlled entities hold a further 6.4 percent of shares.

It has run losses for the past five years and has relied of government and other shareholders for support, S&P said.

"The bonds constitute direct, unsubordinated, and unsecured obligations of SriLankan Airlines," S&P said in a statement.

"SriLankan Airlines intends to use the net proceeds from the bonds to finance aircraft pre-delivery payments and for general working capital purposes."

Sri Lankan Airlines has ordered a fleet of new A300 and A350 aircraft from Airbus.