Originally Posted by
Elephant and Castle
You are all getting a bit ahead of yourselves. Norwegian has a big pile of debt, true and it is making a small loss while going through some explosive growth, true but....
It owns a whole pile of aircraft
It owns a whole load of very valuable slots at main airports
It has firm delivery slots for A320 neos, 737 MAX and 787 worth a whole pile of money (that is just the delivery slots)
It has the backing of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (who has a long term investment horizon unlike other funds)
It has just now gone through the first equity raise in 9 years which has been fully subscribed by existing shareholders. It hasn't even tapped the open market.
The existing debt, they say, is financed at low long term fixed rates
It has on the table a buyout offer from IAG
Expansion costs money. New routes take time to mature, newly hired staff take time and money to be trained and to be productive, AC cost money, etc, etc, etc The amazing thing is that they are able to carry out such explosive growth without raising more (much more ) capital. Some companies use their profits to make a dividend pay out, Norwegian is using them to grow and attain a critical size to allow the necessary economies of scale to compete. I am sure the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund is happy with that.
Where do you find that the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund holds any ownership in Norwegian Air Shuttle? I've just checked on their webpage and I cannot find any information that they hold a single share in NAS.
Well they don't pay out any dividends because there is hardly any money to pay out even if they wanted to. Their EBITDA margins looks like a roller coaster last 10 years and the OP cash flow hardly increase at all. Looks like they expand with negative profitability. The question seems to be for how long the lenders/shareholders accept no return on their money. It will always be a point where they have had enough. Unfortunately the only financial curves that are beautiful to look at when you screen NAS is their debts and revenue.