JetBlue Again Sweetens Spirit Bid as Vote Looms

JetBlue Airways on Monday once more upped its provide to amass Spirit Airways, days earlier than Spirit shareholders are slated to vote on a competing provide to merge with Frontier Airways. JetBlue’s newest provide, detailed in an open letter to Spirit shareholders, consists of an elevated break-up payment and a dividend.

The transfer comes days after Frontier elevated its provide and Spirit’s board reiterated its support for a Frontier deal. Spirit shareholders are set to vote on the proposed Frontier merger throughout a June 30 particular assembly.

JetBlue’s newest provide features a $400 million break-up payment payable to Spirit ought to an agreed-upon transaction not materialize attributable to antitrust issues from federal regulators. Spirit’s board has held that JetBlue’s Northeast Alliance with American Airways, which triggered an antitrust suit from the U.S. Division of Justice, poses a big regulatory impediment to a possible JetBlue-Spirit deal.

JetBlue’s new proposal additionally features a $2.50 per-share dividend and a “ticking-fee mechanism,” which might pay Spirit shareholders 10 cents per share every month starting in January till the deal is consummated or terminated.

“The details reveal that our provide to amass Spirit stays decisively superior to the not too long ago amended Frontier transaction,” JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes write within the open letter, which urged Spirit shareholders to vote towards the Frontier deal Thursday.

Neither Spirit nor Frontier instantly commented on JetBlue’s revised provide on Monday.

RELATED: Spirit Backs Frontier’s Sweetened Merger Offer Over JetBlue’s