ATW Daily News

ANA adds five 787s to order, to issue nearly $2 billion in new stock

Thursday July 2, 2009

ANA raised its firm 787 commitment to 55 aircraft from 50, according to a document released yesterday detailing the company's plan to issue 575 million new shares worth an estimated ¥182.62 billion ($1.9 billion) that will be used largely to finance new aircraft.

The company also said it is targeting an additional ¥30 billion in cost savings this fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, through "the earlier and more refined implementation of measures contained in the current emergency plan, along with new additional measures." That plan was unveiled in late April and is designed to save ¥73 billion (ATWOnline, May 1). One initiative mentioned yesterday was described as a "Pay for Value" scheme, which would entail "reviewing current services and charging for value-added services." It did not elaborate.

Boeing did not confirm the order change in either a statement or on its Orders and Deliveries website, although the Financial Times reported that ANA said it switched a commitment for five 767-300ERs to the 787. According to ATW's recently released "World Airline Report," ANA had 10 -300ERs on order. Yesterday's filing indicated it had five and 55 787s. It said it expected delivery of its Dreamliners to begin "in or after February 2010."

The move makes ANA the world's largest airline customer for the 787. Qantas reduced its firm order to 50 from 65 last week (ATWOnline, June 29), lifting the number of cancellations by all airlines this year to 72. ANA also has six 777-300s, eight 737-800s, 15 737-700s and three Dash 8-400s on order. Its order book is worth ¥1.06 trillion, it said.

Regarding the new shares, ANA said, "We believe the public offering will enable us to steadily implement the Mid-Term Corporate Policy [unveiled in January] by improving our financial condition while facilitating strategic investments in aircrafts centering on the Boeing 787. By doing so, we continue our efforts in realizing our ultimate goal of becoming the number one airline group in Asia by capturing the business opportunities provided by the increase in flight slots at the Tokyo metropolitan airports in 2010" (ATWOnline, Feb. 2).

It said the stock offering will comprise 250 million shares of common stock available to domestic underwriters, 250 million for international underwriters, plus an additional 37.5 million share option, with price to be determined July 13-15. A secondary offering of 37.5 million shares will cover any overallotments, with an offering of another 37.5 million shares by way of third-party allotment available in August. At that point, ANA will have approximately 2.52 billion issued shares.

by Brian Straus

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