AFLYY - Air France-KLM may raise more capital to bolster balance sheet

Air France-KLM ([[AFLYY]] +1.8%) CEO Benjamin Smith indicates that the company may raise more capital to provide strength to its balance sheet as travel begins to recover from the COVID-19.A look at the company's growing debt and more details on the balance sheet here.The capital rise will increase French government stake in the airline to 30%, it follows last year's ?10.4B-euro debt bailout for the group, backed by the French and Dutch governments.The new share issue will dilute the Dutch government's equity stake to 9.3%.China Eastern Airlines will increase its stake in the group from 8.8% to 9.6%. As expected, Delta Air Lines will see its holding diluted to 5.8%.Airline plans at least to match the 50% of pre-crisis summer flight capacity."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," CEO mentions. "We're loading capacity

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Air France-KLM may raise more capital to bolster balance sheet