(JetBlue) JetBlue is offering a “ticking fee” to Spirit that would raise the overall offer price to $34.15 per share in a bidding war with Frontier Airlines.
Under the “ticking fee,” Spirit shareholders would receive a monthly prepayment of 10 cents per share between January 2023 and the deal’s closing.
JetBlue also raised the break-up fee of Spirit by $50 million to $400 million, payable if the deal is called off due to antitrust concerns. The company will prepay a $2.50 per share cash dividend to Spirit after the transaction is approved.
JetBlue says its deal is better than Frontier’s, faulting the latter’s “rosy projections of a potential future stock price,” which it says is based on flawed assumptions.
JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes says the superior offer was after directly discussing it with Spirit’s shareholders.
SAVE: NYSE is up +3.90% in premarket, JBLU: NASDAQ is up +0.23% in premarket.
