PARIS (Reuters), –Air France-KLM has announced that on Friday, it entered into exclusive discussions with Apollo to receive a 500m euro (529 million USD) capital injection. This will be used for an engineering or maintenance unit in the company’s repayment of French state aid.

The transaction will allow Air France-KLM to partly redeem French state perpetual bonds, and Air France-France-Air France would be able to do so through the proceeds.

The current market capitalization of the airline stands at 2.73 Billion Euros.

A spokesperson for Air France-KLM stated that the Apollo Global Management (NYSE 🙂 deal would not allow the firm to take an equity stake in the airline. He said it was only a financial operation.

Air France-KLM announced in February that they would be raising up to 4 Billion Euros to repay all the assistance it received from its pandemic.

According to this airline, it is considering measures like a capital rise and quasi-equity instruments in order to accelerate payments to France’s top shareholder. [nL5N2WX115

Shipping firm CMA CGM announced this week it would take a major stake in Air France-KLM.

($1 = 0.9449 euros)