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(Updates with deal details)
By Yoruk Bahceli and Abhinav Ramnarayan
AMSTERDAM, Feb 24 (Reuters) - EasyJet will raise up
to 1.2 billion euros ($1.46 billion) from a seven-year bond sale
later on Wednesday, a memo from one of the banks arranging the
deal seen by Reuters showed, days after Britain laid out a
timeline for a return to international travel.
The deal has attracted investor demand of 5.87 billion euros
so far, the lead manager said, helping the company to reduce the
yield on offer to 2%, from around 2.375% when the sale first
started on Wednesday. The size of the deal has increased to the
top end of a 1.0 billion-1.2 billion euro target range.
The positive response from bond investors comes after
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out a phased plan on
Monday to end England's COVID-19 lockdown.
Under the plan, Britain could see curbs on international
travel removed as early as May 17.
Encouraged by positive news about travel in its biggest
market Britain, easyJet moved to appoint BNP Paribas,
Morgan Stanley and Santander as joint
bookrunners on Tuesday to run a bond sale.
EasyJet said that bookings for flights for this summer had
soared more than 300% since Britain's announcement, and holidays
by more than 600%, compared to their levels last week.
The airline's share price has risen more than 18% to 982
pence this week, while the yield on its outstanding June 2025
notes has dropped 51 basis points in two sessions to 1.39%
. Bond yields move inversely to prices.
Proceeds from the bond sale will be used for general
corporate purposes and for refinancing debt, according to an
investor announcement. EasyJet has a 500 million euro bond
maturing in February 2023.
($1 = 0.8238 euros)
(Reporting by Yoruk Bahceli, Editing by Abhinav Ramnarayan,
Kirsten Donovan and Jane Merriman)
