British Airways parent company International Airlines Group (IAG) (IAG) has raised €2.75 billion after placing new shares to prop up the group’s balance sheet.

IAG announced that almost 93% of new shares were snapped up by investors during the pre-emptive subscription period, which ended on September 26, 2020. The rest of the shares were distributed proportionally after the demand for additional shares was twice as high as the number of shares remaining.

The company launched a heavily discounted new shares placement on September 10, 2020. The stated discounted price was €0.92 per each share. IAG took this measure in order to raise capital if the downturn of the aviation industry would take longer to recover than experts predicted.

As all IAG airlines have made substantial losses in 2020, Willie Walsh, the CEO of IAG, said that the group expected that it would take until at least 2023 for passenger demand to recover to 2019 level.

Earlier in September, Walsh said that the increase of IAG capital by €2.75 billion would enhance the group’s resilience and liquidity position as well as reduce debt on its balance sheet and help it withstand a prolonged downturn in travel.

The financial results of 2020 showed that IAG continues to take actions to strengthen its balance sheet and liquidity position ‒ at the end of June the group's liquidity stood at €8.1 billion.