Gref said that Aeroflot is having difficulty servicing debts

Gref, however, believes that the "excellent" company "Aeroflot" will survive the situation, reports Interfax.

From Sberbank, we note, "Aeroflot" attracted loans for 70 billion rubles under five-year state guarantees and several soft loans under the anti-crisis state program. The latter were provided to Aeroflot at a subsidiary rate.

From the semi-annual reporting of the "excellent" company, it follows that it has increased the volume of loans and borrowings to 64.4 billion rubles. That is, it quadrupled compared to the end of 2019. The carrier's short-term loans grew 3.6 times to RUB 45.8 billion.

In the reporting period, Aeroflot received loans from a dozen banks, including, in addition to Sberbank, Sovcombank, SMP Bank, Rosselkhozbank, Gazprombank, Alfa-Bank, Bank Intesa, RRDB, Rosbank and Promsvyazbank.

On the eve of Aeroflot officially announced the start of an additional issue of up to 1.7 billion rubles. From September 21, shareholders can exercise their preemptive right to purchase shares until October 1 inclusive. The payment deadline will be determined after the price has been approved by the Board of Directors.

As a reminder, the carrier's shares collapsed early last month amid news of the additional issue. Before that, Aeroflot shareholders refused to pay dividends for last year in connection with the coronavirus pandemic.

Aeroflot is considered one of the carriers most affected by the pandemic. At the same time, its general director Vitaly Savelyev predicts bankruptcy of other airlines.