Originally Posted by
FriendlyPilot
Creditors will get "pennies on the dollar" if Spirit liquidates so they should be happy with an acquisition where they take stock or an unsecured note, even at a substantial discount to their current secured debt. Also the creditors "really want" to keep the airline in one piece instead of being broken up and sold even if it means them getting less money.
This is a popular take that I disagree with and have been explaining for 6 months why its wrong.
Explain why they are right and I'm wrong.
Go.
Months ago, people argued that Southwest would never buy Airbus aircraft. Now, based on public statements from Southwest’s CEO, that’s no longer true. Southwest has been reshaping the airline to align itself more closely with what Spirit is trying to do. Spirit, meanwhile, is in the process of uplifting its enterprise value so it can be sold at a premium. The DIP lenders are the equity holders from the first bankruptcy who traded debt for equity. They will recover their DIP financing and are positioning themselves for a premium return on their stock, which has been locked up and unsellable since the first bankruptcy.
I believe they walked away from Frontier’s offer in February because they thought they could get more for the airline later by filing bankruptcy a second time. This process looks choreographed: Spirit’s stakeholders are now positioning themselves to maximize their return on investment.
I have read every single filing, including all the transcripts. You will see the same clause that I found, and maybe you will change your mind. Spirit is divesting assets to gain regulatory approvals, but they are not liquidating. Instead, they are reducing debt by shedding mostly non‑flying and unprofitable aircraft, which directly improves enterprise value. Southwest has future plans that demand more planes, and Spirit solves that problem immediately.
SAVEQ shareholders didn’t listen to Spirit’s CEO when he warned them about voting for JetBlue’s offer over Frontier, and they didn’t want that mistake repeated. As a result, equity was wiped out and control was turned over to the bondholders, who have been guiding Spirit toward a regulatory‑approved maximum return on their investment, using bankruptcy as a tool to extract maximum value in a sale.
A merger with Southwest in February would not have been possible, but one now is more likely than ever before because of everything that has been done over the last 10 months: debt reduction, fleet restructuring, labor concessions, and asset divestitures. Am I right? Only time will tell. But one thing is clear — Spirit isn’t liquidating.