FRANKFURT/HANOVER, July 30 (Reuters) - Continental AG will begin preparations to raise fresh equity to improve its sagging finances, the heavily indebted German car parts company said late on Thursday.
"The company's supervisory board accepted the proposal submitted by the executive board to prepare a capital increase of up to 1.5 billion euros within the framework of the corporation's authorized capital," Continental said in a statement.
Management will also initiate refinancing talks with its creditor banks to deal with repayment of a credit tranche of 3.5 billion euros that is due in August 2010, it said.
(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner and Arno Schuetze) Keywords: CONTINENTAL/EQUITY

(christiaan.hetzner@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: christiaan.hetzner.reuters.com@reuters.net; +49 69 7565 1249)

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