Spirit Airlines Defers Key Shareholder Vote On Frontier Deal Again

Spirit Airlines Inc SAVE on Wednesday postponed a key shareholder vote on a proposed deal with Frontier Group Holding Inc ULCC until next week.

What Happened: The Florida-based airline said it aims to discuss more options with Frontier and rival suitor JetBlue Airways Corp JBLU.

This is the second time Spirit has postponed the vote and said the meeting will now reconvene on July 8.

The development comes a day after JetBlue sweetened its offer to buy Spirit, which the latter rejected and instead, recommended shareholders to vote in favor of a merger with Frontier at a meeting on Thursday.

See Also: ​​JetBlue Won't Take No For An Answer, Makes Another Bid For Spirit Airlines

Takeover War: The battle for Spirit began in February with Frontier’s cash-and-stock offer of $25.83 a share. JetBlue entered the bid in early April with an all-cash $33 per share, or $3.6 billion, bid for Spirit. 

The airline rejected JetBlue’s offer a month later, citing the lower possibility of securing regulatory approval. 

Spirit called for a shareholder meeting on June 10 to vote on its proposed merger with Frontier, even as JetBlue upped the hostile offer and sweetened the deal.

JetBlue on Wednesday issued a letter to Spirit shareholders ahead of the meeting, saying its cash offer of $33.5 per share was superior and has “a premium of 51% to the implied value of the Frontier transaction,” and has greater regulatory commitments, including a larger reverse break-up fee of $400 million.

Price Action: SAVE closed 1.8% lower at $22.4 on Wednesday and was trading 1.9% up in after-hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro. 

Photo via Thiago B Trevisan on Shutterstock