Spirit Airlines rejects another takeover offer from Frontier
Source: The Verge
Spirit Airlines has rejected yet another acquisition bid from Frontier, which would’ve merged the two companies to create the fifth-largest airline in the US, as reported earlier by Reuters. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Spirit called Frontier’s deal ”woefully insufficient financially” compared to the $2.9 billion agreement tossed out in 2022.
As shown in a series of emails made public in the filing, Frontier first submitted its “compelling proposal” to buy Spirit on January 7th in a deal valued at $2.1 billion. However, Spirit CEO Ted Christie and board chair Mac Gardner responded by saying the advisors to Spirit’s bondholders “believe your current proposal is so insufficient as not to merit a counter.”
After some back and forth between the two companies, Spirit ultimately rejected the offer in favor of its existing restructuring plan that’s expected to pull the beleaguered airline out of bankruptcy. “While we appreciate your continued interest and share your view of the logic of a potential transaction, your January 7 terms (which have not been improved on in the last three weeks) are both inadequate and unactionable,” Christie and Gardner said in a January 28th email.
