Norwegian Air’s shares plunge 50% as equity issue completed

OSLO (Reuters) – Norwegian Air’s share price fell by half on Monday as the company said its issue of new equity was completed.

The carrier’s financial rescue plan, selling new stock and converting debt to equity, will lead to a massive stake dilution for existing shareholders, increasing the number of shares in the company to about 3.5 billion from only 163.6 million.

The deeply discounted sale of 400 million new shares, at just 1 Norwegian crown per share, was about seven times oversubscribed, and the new stock becomes available for trading later this week, the budget carrier said.

Norwegian’s shares fell to 2.51 crowns in early trade, down 51% from Friday’s close.

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche)