Frontier Says It Lacks the Votes To Close Spirit Merger; Requests Fourth Vote Delay

Significant Spirit shareholder urges board to vote for JetBlue merger.

Tuesday, July 12, 2022 at 03:55 PM ET

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Frontier's offer to Spirit is for $2.6 billion in cash and stocks. [Courtesy: Frontier Airlines]

Key Takeaways:

Frontier Airlines' CEO is concerned about losing the Spirit Airlines merger to JetBlue, citing low shareholder approval for Frontier's offer and requesting another vote delay.
Frontier has declared its current $2.6 billion cash and stock offer as its "last, best, and final" and is emphasizing the regulatory hurdles JetBlue's $3.7 billion cash bid faces.
Spirit shareholders, including a major investment fund, and proxy advisors are generally advocating for JetBlue's financially superior offer over Frontier's.
Frontier argues its merger would be pro-competitive, creating the fifth-largest airline, while a JetBlue-Spirit combination is "more impossible by the day" due to existing antitrust issues for JetBlue.

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In late June, Frontier Airlines’ (NASDAQ: ULCC) CEO Barry Biffle was upbeat about the chances of his airline merging with Spirit Airlines (NYSE: SAVE). Now, after Spirit delayed its shareholder vote a third time last week to July 15, to allow more time to deliberate between offers from Frontier and JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU), Biffle is beginning to worry.