Frontier Airlines’ Bid for Spirit Faces Opposition From Advisory Firm

The prospects for a proposed sale of Spirit Airlines to Frontier Airlines appear to be under threat as a prominent shareholder advisory firm reversed its guidance on the combination of the two budget carriers, recommending on Friday that Spirit’s investors reject the deal.

A bidding war has led Spirit to repeatedly delay a shareholder vote as it seeks to garner support for the Frontier deal over an unsolicited bid by JetBlue Airways. The additional time, shifting terms of the deals and market dynamics led the advisory firm, Institutional Shareholder Services, to change its recommendation twice, most recently on Friday.

Frontier said days earlier that it had no plans to adjust its offer and acknowledged that it remained “very far” from obtaining the support needed from Spirit’s shareholders. At Frontier’s request, Spirit this week delayed the shareholder vote again, to July 27. It had been scheduled for Friday.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/15/business/spirit-airlines-frontier-jetblue.html