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Air France-KLM may raise more capital to bolster its balance sheet as travel begins to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic in the coming months, its chief executive said on Monday.
Ben Smith, speaking at an online industry event as a €1.036 billion ($1.25bn) share issue by the airline group nears completion, signalled it could move relatively quickly to seek further funds and reduce debt. We do have heavy debt that is holding back our balance sheet, so this may have to get looked at again later in the year, he said, adding Air France-KLM was encouraged by European progress on vaccinations and digital health passes.
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Air Canada shares fell sharply on Tuesday on fears that its market value would be diluted after the Canadian government took a discounted equity stake in the flagship carrier as part of a deal for C$5.9 billion ($4.7 billion) in aid.
But analysts and investors said Air Canada s decision to accept the bigger-than-expected aid package, which was announced on Monday, was the right decision for Canada s largest carrier to ride out the crippling downturn in air travel caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The deal gives Ottawa a roughly 6 per cent stake in Canada s largest carrier at a discount of 14 per cent, which prompted several analysts to cut their price targets.
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South-East Asia s biggest ride-hailing and food delivery firm, Grab Holdings, agreed to a merger on Tuesday with US-based Altimeter Growth Corporation in a deal that gives Grab an initial equity value of about $39.6 billion and will lead to a public listing.
The merger, the biggest blank cheque company deal ever, underscores the frenzy on Wall Street as shell firms have raised $99 billion in the United States so far this year after a record $83 billion in 2020.
Singapore-based Grab s agreement with a special purpose acquisition company backed by Altimeter Capital includes a more than $4bn private investment in public equity by investors including BlackRock, Fidelity International, Janus Henderson Investors and Temasek Holdings.
Apple tends to cater to the higher end of the (US) market; so it might grab a small portion of LG s sales, Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen said. It s more likely that Samsung inherits a lot of it because both vendors compete across similar markets.
Globally, LG s market share shrank to 2 per cent in 2020, a massive drop from its status as the world s third-largest smartphone maker behind Samsung Electronics and Apple during its peak in 2013.
The company shipped 23 million phones last year, compared with Samsung s 256 million, according to Counterpoint.
Counterpoint analyst Tarun Pathak said LG was mostly competing in the mid-tier, as its flagship phones received tepid market response.