SAS says the year has started better than expected

SAS (OMX: SAS) finished the week strongly after providing new financial information together with its Annual Report 2011 on Thursday. The airliner said its cash position remains strong and newly renegotiated credit facilities have improved flexibility.

The company says that the first two months of the year have been far above the company’s own expectations and this means it is well ahead of the curve in implementing its 4Excellence strategy, which aims to reap 5 billion in cost and revenue measures in 2012-2013. First quarter is typically seasonally slow.

After Spanair bankruptcy SAS sat on the table with its creditor banks and agreed with the Revolving Credit Facility and Bi-lateral facility lenders to amend the covenants scheme to achieve further balance sheet flexibility.

SAS says that it does not current foresee the use of the facilities and sees them merely a part of financial preparedness at the moment. The stock hopped 14% on the news on Thursday. Some profit taking occurred on Friday but the stock still finished above 9 SEK in Stockholm, corresponding to almost 15% weekly gain.