Spirit Airlines has – once again – rejected an offer from JetBlue Airways in favour of fellow low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines, advising its shareholders to reject a tender offer for shares. This comes off the back of JetBlue’s hostile $30-per-share take-over bid earlier this week, with Spirit Airlines accusing the JetBlue of disrupting its attempts to merge with Frontier.
“Spirit believes JetBlue’s proposals and offer are a cynical attempt to disrupt Spirit’s merger with Frontier, which JetBlue views as a competitive threat,” Spirit said in a statement.
Its board reviewed JetBlue’s offer and said in a statement that it was “not in the best interests of Spirit and its stakeholders.”
In February Frontier and Spirit announced a $2.9 billion cash-and-stock deal to combine into a discount airline behemoth. In contrast, JetBlue says its $3.6 billion all-cash offer would “turbocharge” its growth. All three airlines fly Airbus narrow-body planes, with dozens more on order. Either combination of the airlines would create the fifth-largest U.S. carrier.
As part of a statement, Mac Gardner, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Spirit Airlines said: “Our pending merger with Frontier is advancing as planned, and we continue to recommend that Spirit stockholders vote for the merger with Frontier on June 10th, as we believe the combination of these two ULCCs is the best way to deliver maximum value to Spirit stockholders.”
