Lufthansa eyes markedly less than 3-4 billion euros in capital increase

FRANKFUFT (Reuters) - The amount of cash Germany's Lufthansa aims to raise on a planned new share issue will be significantly below 3-4 billion euros, the airline's finance chief said on Thursday.

Remco Steenbergen told reporters that such numbers have been mentioned in the media and that no decisions have been made yet, but added: "I think it is significantly less."

Insiders told Reuters earlier Lufthansa was planning an increase of roughly 3 billion euros, but Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr said lower pension liability had reduced the need of fresh capital in the past months.

The group, which last year received a 9 billion euro ($10.66 billion)lifeline in public funding to stay afloat, has said it planned a capital increase, possibly before the Sept. 26 parliamentary election, so that bail-out money could be returned to taxpayers earlier than originally envisaged, depending on market conditions.

Pressed on the timing of the increase Spohr said: "I have said 'possibly before the parliamentary elections' and the word 'possibly' was there for a reason."

($1 = 0.8445 euros)

(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach; Writing by Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Riham Alkousaa)