Finnair has become the first European airline to sell a bond since the coronavirus pandemic began, paying a double-digit rate of interest to raise higher-risk debt with equity-like features. Finland’s largest airline sold E200m of so-called hybrid bonds on Thursday, offering investors a hefty 10.25% annual coupon. The debt has a perpetual maturity, meaning that it never has to be repaid, and would rank behind the rest of Finnair’s debt in a bankruptcy. The feature allows the company to classify it as equity on its balance sheet. While the US bond market has experienced a rush of issuance this year from airlines such as Delta, United and American Airlines, Thursday’s bond sale marks the first from a European airline since the spread of Covid-19 crushed the global travel industry. “It shows confidence that companies even from this sector still do have access to bond markets,” said Antti Saha, head of debt capital markets at Nordea, one of the banks that ran the deal. He added that about two-thirds of buyers were Scandinavian investors.<br/>