LAN Airlines Makes it Big in Equity Offering

LAN Airlines S.A. and its related companies have successfully completed equity offering, raising a total of $320 million in the Chilean and United States markets.

The transaction was completed via a global offering and a subsequent rights offering in both Chile and the US. As of the closing of the rights offering on June 17, 2007, only approximately 2.5 percent of the shares were remaining; these shares were sold in the Chilean market.

Through this offering, the company placed a total of 19,881,819 common shares, a 6.2 percent increase in its share count. With this, LAN’s total shares outstanding amount to 338,790,909.

The company said earlier this year it planned to use the money to expand its fleet and to help fund $2.6 billion in investments through to 2011. The airline reported profit of $86.08 million in the first quarter of this year, up 8.1 percent from the same period last year, and said it expected to boost revenue 18.6 percent in 2007 to some $3.6 billion.