Airline SAS hits record low as Sweden halts handouts

The Swedish government will not inject new capital into SAS, its industry minister said on Tuesday, dealing a blow to the loss-making airline’s restructuring efforts and sending its shares down 14% to record lows. SAS said last week a restructuring plan announced in February depended on it raising 9.5b Swedish crowns ($968m) in cash and converting 20b crowns of debt to equity, warning of liquidity problems if it fell short. But no shareholders, including main owners Sweden and Denmark with 21.8% stakes each, have yet committed to the carrier’s plan. “We want to be clear that we will not inject new capital into SAS in the future,” Swedish industry minister Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson told a news conference. Thorwaldsson said he would, however, propose to parliament that SAS be allowed to convert debt it owes to the government into equity capital. In the long term the government still wants to exit SAS completely, he added. Denmark’s finance minister, Nikolai Wammen, said he had noted the Swedish decision but Danish lawmakers were still assessing the airline’s plans and how the state could “contribute”.<br/>