docav8tor

And yet they filed in 2017 and ultimately pulled it due to the pandemic. One can hope it only takes 6-12 months.

https://bizwest.com/2020/07/28/front...-cancels-ipo/#

docav8tor

Low-cost US airline Frontier Group withdraws 2017 IPO filing

Contributor

Jul 27, 2020 6:56AM EDTFrontier Group Holdings, an ultra low-cost US airline carrier that serves more than 50 airports, withdrew its plans for an initial public offering on Friday. It originally filed in March 2017 with an estimated deal size of $700 million.

The Denver, CO-based company was founded in 1994 and booked $1.8 billion in revenue for the 12 months ended March 31, 2017. It had planned to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol FRNT. Citi, Deutsche Bank, Evercore ISI, J.P. Morgan, BofA Securities, Barclays, Cowen, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Raymond James and UBS Investment Bank were set to be the joint bookrunners on the deal.

The article Low-cost US airline Frontier Group withdraws 2017 IPO filingoriginally appeared on IPO investment manager Renaissance Capital's web site renaissancecapital.com.

Investment Disclosure: The information and opinions expressed herein were prepared by Renaissance Capital's research analysts and do not constitute an offer to buy or sell any security. Renaissance Capital's Renaissance IPO ETF (symbol: IPO), Renaissance International ETF (symbol: IPOS), or separately managed institutional accounts may have investments in securities of companies mentioned.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

docav8tor

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-s...74B3MJ20110512

Spirit Airlines sets IPO price range, eyes $320 million

BANGALORE/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Spirit Airlines, a private U.S. carrier specializing in low-priced flights to Latin America and the Caribbean, could raise as much as $320 million after it priced its initial public offering at $14-$16 a share.
Two passengers talk to a ticketing agent at the Spirit Airlines counter after a Spirit pilots strike was called at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Michigan June 12, 2010. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
It initially filed with U.S. regulators to raise up to $300 million in its IPO last September.

The company said it plans to use the IPO proceeds to repay debt and pay private equity firm Indigo.

Citigroup Global Markets and Morgan Stanley are lead underwriters for the offering, which will see Spirit list its shares on NASDAQ under the “SAVE” symbol.

The airline, which calls itself an “ultra low-cost” carrier, keeps ticket prices low by unbundling items and services from its base fares.

Major airlines have adopted similar structures in recent years and have managed to generate substantial ancillary revenue streams by unbundling services like bag checks.

“They’re perhaps the most aggressive among U.S. carriers on ancillary fees,” said Robert Mann, airline consultant at RW Mann & Co. “But at the same time in fairness, they have significantly reduced prices associated with removing services.”

Spirit began operations in 1980 as Charter One, a Detroit-based charter tour operator that provided travel packages to entertainment destinations. In 1992, Charter One changed its name to Spirit Airlines and began offering flights from Detroit to Atlantic City.

The carrier added destinations throughout the 1990s and added Latin American cities starting in 2001. It now serves 40 destinations. Spirit employs 2,300 people to run its EADS Airbus EAD.PA fleet.

Spirit’s pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, staged a six-day strike in June after U.S.-mediated talks failed to bridge differences with management over pay, scheduling and benefits.

The strike at Spirit was the first notable job action at a U.S. passenger airline since Northwest Airlines mechanics walked off the job in 2005. Delta Air Lines Inc DAL.N bought Northwest in 2008.

Florida-based Spirit operates more than 150 flights a day, but carries less than 1 percent of U.S. air passenger traffic.

Reporting by Kyle Peterson in Chicago and Aditi Sharma in Bangalore. Editing by Ian Geoghegan and Robert MacMillan

docav8tor

The IPO market has been hot so no time like the present.

Beretta01

I wonder what the chances are of Allegiant coming into the picture in a big way. They/we have a huge amount of cash on hand right now...~750 million. I have no idea how mergers work but that’s a lot of cash to be holding(granted, COVID changed all accounting strategies)

EAFF95

Respectfully, as of Q4 2020 Allegiant had $152.8m in cash compared to Frontiers $378m. We both have access to revolving credit from the government that remains undrawn and Frontier's S-1 omits short/long term investments. However, I doubt either airline is in a position to make a move without an influx of cash from another source.

Personally, I don't think the business models mash up well. Allegiant prefers well loved airplanes on underserviced routes with low frequency whereas we are utilizing new airplanes working frequently out of some of the biggest hubs in America. The only thing we have in common are the aircraft type and fare structure.

Margaritaville

This has all been predicted. Another chip falls into place. Allegiant will buy Frontier, mark my words, write it down.

EAFF95

You're smoking the good stuff then, because G4 is already highly leveraged as it is. I just don't see where they are going to get the money for any sort of buy out, especially if Frontier was looking at $700m during the original IPO.

Aero1900

No

Frontier is worth too much for them

Powderkeg

Apparently I wasn’t clear in a previous post...to put it more bluntly, you’re crazy. If anybody was going to buy F9 the time to do so would be when there wasn’t a public ownership hurdle to overcome. And the main reason owners IPO rather than make a private sale is they don’t get the valuation they want when shopping for buyers. So (big) IF G4 was interested in buying F9 they couldn’t come up with the scratch that Indigo wants.