Greece’s largest air carrier Aegean Airlines raised 200 million euros ($224.20 million) from a bond offering that ended on Thursday and was oversubscribed, underwriters said.

Aegean, a member of the Star Alliance airline group, will use 75 percent of the proceeds to partly finance down payments on new aircraft based on a deal with Airbus to renew its fleet of single-aisle planes and add capacity for future expansion.

Aegean picked Airbus in March last year for an order of up to 42 aircraft worth $5 billion in one of the biggest investments by a private Greek company since the country’s debt crisis erupted in 2010.

The bond issue was 2.6 times oversubscribed with 60 percent allocated to private investors and the remainder to “qualified” investors.

The carrier plans to use 14 percent of the proceeds or up to 27.5 million euros to build a new 12,000 square meter training center with flight simulators for its flight crews at the Athens International Airport (AIA).

About 11 percent of the proceeds or up to 21.6 million will be used as working capital.

[Reuters]

This article was originally published on ekathimerini.com.