Atlas Air expects takeover to complete in days

The takeover of freighter operator Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings is expected to complete in the coming days after the company gained the necessary approvals.

In a stock exchange filing, the New York-headquartered firm said that as of March 14 “all regulatory conditions to closing set forth in the merger agreement were satisfied”.

The company said it expects to “consummate” the merger “on or about” March 17.

The acquisition is by an investor group led by funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, together with investment affiliates of JF Lehman & Company and Hill City Capital.

The takeover has an all-cash transaction with an enterprise valuation of approximately $5.2bn.

The deal will make Atlas Air a privately held company and its stock will no longer be listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

The deal has faced some obstacles with a lawsuit against the company for alleged violations of the securities exchange act.

More recently, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) expressed concerns about Apollo-affiliated individuals also sitting on the board of Sun Country Airlines, which shares Amazon as a customer with Atlas.

However, the individuals later resigned from their roles at Sun Country.

“Sun Country and Atlas Air both provide crew, maintenance, and insurance for domestic air freight routes. In August 2022, an investment group led by Apollo Global Management, Inc. proposed acquiring all of Atlas Air’s outstanding shares,” the DoJ said.

“At the time, two Apollo-affiliated individuals sat on the Sun Country board of directors. After the division raised concerns regarding a potential interlock arising from Apollo’s proposed acquisition of Atlas Air, the two Apollo-affiliated directors resigned from the Sun Country board.”

In the fourth quarter of the year, Atlas Air saw its revenues grow but profits were down.