Minnesota’s Sun Country Airlines launches IPO

Sun Country Airlines (SY, Minneapolis/St. Paul) has launched its initial public offering, hoping to raise up to USD240 million through the sale of 9,090,909 common shares, or a 16.3% stake, on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The Minneapolis/St. Paul-based carrier expects a price of between USD21 and USD23 per share, putting potential total proceeds at USD190.9-209.1 million before commissions and discounts. However, if underwriters chose to exercise 30-day options to acquire a further 1,363,636 shares, total gross proceeds could rise to between USD219.5 million and USD240.4 million. The airline indicated that it plans to use USD46.2 million to repay an outstanding federal loan received under the CARES programme, USD5.8 million for various fees and commissions, and the remainder for general corporate purposes. Apollo Global Management intends to retain majority ownership of the carrier following the IPO. Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank Securities will act as joint lead book-runners with Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Nomura acting as joint book-runners. Apollo Global Securities, AmeriVet Securities, Siebert Williams Shank and Tribal Capital Markets, LLC will co-manage the sale. The carrier initially signalled its intention to go public in early last month. Meanwhile, ch-aviation schedules analysis has revealed that the carrier plans to resume scheduled flights using its only B737-700, currently used exclusively for charter flights in a premium configuration with just 76 seats on board. N713SY (msn 30635) is scheduled to operate individual flights from Minneapolis to Punta Cana and Montego Bay starting on March 13. According to Sun Country’s internet booking engine, it will be reconfigured for 138 passengers in an all-economy layout, akin to that of its thirty B737-800s. Starting in May, the airline’s only -700 will be used more frequently on scheduled flights. According to the ch-aviation schedules module, it will be deployed from Minneapolis to Santa Ana, CA (4x weekly from May 6), Hartford Bradley (2x weekly from May 21), and Jackson Hole, WY (2x weekly starting on May 26), as well as from Santa Ana to Dallas/Fort Worth (2x weekly beginning on May 6). Besides the 31 passenger-configured B737s, Sun Country Airlines also operates twelve B737-800(BCF)s on behalf of Amazon.com.