Sun Country Airlines Holdings Inc. shares jumped 40 percent in their trading debut March 17, signaling strong investor appetite for airline stocks as the industry looks forward to a post-pandemic rebound. The company priced its initial public offering above range at $24 a share to raise about $218 million.
Minneapolis-based Sun Country sold about 9.1 million shares, according to a statement confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. The company had marketed the shares for $21 and $23, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Apollo Global Management Inc. acquired Sun Country in 2018 and an Apollo affiliate will continue to control the company after the IPO, according to Sun Country’s filings.
The airline specializes in ferrying Midwesterners to vacation destinations such as Florida, as well as those in Latin America and the Caribbean. The company said its growth depends on a return to normal business conditions after the coronavirus pandemic, which remains a threat.
The company had a net loss of $3.9 million on revenue of $401 million last year, compared with net income of $46 million on revenue of $701 million in 2019, according to its filings.
This month, a second U.S. carrier, Frontier Group Holdings Inc., revived its plans for an IPO. Frontier, which hasn’t set terms for the offering, withdrew its earlier IPO plan in July as passenger traffic dived during the pandemic. Frontier swung from net income of $251 million in 2019 to a loss of $225 million last year, according to its filings.
Sun Country’s offering is being led by Barclays Plc, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank AG. The shares are expected to begin trading Wednesday on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol SNCY.
