American low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines announced that its shareholders have approved the merger agreement between the company and JetBlue. More than half of the outstanding common stockholders voted in favour of the transaction, according to preliminary results provided by an independent examiner who participated in a meeting today.
The final results will be filed on a Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is a report on corporate changes in a company that could be of interest to all interested parties, as well as to regulators.
The completion of the transaction is subject to stringent conditions. Among them, the approval of the entities in charge of regulating this type of process. Both companies expect to complete the transaction in the first half of 2024 at the latest, Spirit Airlines said in a press release.
“This is an important step forward on our path to closing a combination that will create the most compelling national low-fare challenger to the dominant U.S. carriers”, said Ted Christie, President and CEO of Spirit Airlines. “We look forward to continuing our ongoing discussions with regulators as we work toward completing the transaction and delivering value to team members, guests and stockholders”, he added.
The combined airline will have a fleet of more than 400 airplanes and an order backlog of more than 300 aircraft of the Airbus A220 and A320neo families. JetBlue expects to achieve 600 million to 700 million dollars in annual net synergies when the integration is complete. It also expects to achieve combined annual revenues of approximately 11.9 billion on a 2019 revenue basis.
Last July, both companies announced that their boards of directors had approved a definitive merger agreement. JetBlue would acquire Spirit Airlines for 33.50 dollars per share in cash, including an upfront payment of 2.5 dollars per share. The total fully diluted equity value would be 3.8 billion dollars with an adjusted enterprise value of 7.6 billion.
