Spirit (NYSE: SAVE) came out with a quarterly loss of $1.61 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of $1.44. This compares to earnings of $1.24 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.
This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -11.81%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this airline would post a loss of $2.63 per share when it actually produced a loss of $2.32, delivering a surprise of 11.79%.
Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates just once.
LOS ANGELES, November 11, 2019 – Air Lease Corporation (the “Company” or “ALC”) announced today that the Company initiated the sale of a portfolio of 19 aircraft to Thunderbolt III Aircraft Lease Limited (“Thunderbolt III”), a newly formed entity, and Thunderbolt III has now completed its equity and debt financing transactions. The aircraft comprise a mix of narrowbody and widebody jet aircraft that, as of August 31, 2019, had a weighted average age of 9.7 years and were leased to 18 lessees based in 15 countries. ALC and its Irish affiliate, ALC Aircraft Limited, will act as servicers with respect to the aircraft and ALC will act as portfolio manager. ALC estimates that the process of transfer and sale of the majority of aircraft will occur progressively during Q4 2019 and Q1 2020.
The Thunderbolt III structure included two series of Fixed Rate Notes and Equity Certificates. Approximately 15.6865% of the Equity Certificates were purchased by the anchor investor which is an investment vehicle managed by ITE Management L.P. and approximately 5% of the Equity Certificates were purchased by ALC.
Proceeds from the issuance of the Notes and the Equity Certificates will be used to acquire the aircraft, fund certain accounts for the Notes and pay certain expenses.
“We are pleased to announce the closing of Thunderbolt III. This transaction allows ALC to efficiently sell 19 aircraft while retaining the customer relationships through our continued management of these aircraft. I would like to thank our team and the Thunderbolt III investors for making this a successful transaction,” said Gregory B. Willis, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of ALC.
Mizuho Securities acted as Global Coordinator, Mizuho Securities, BofA Securities and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as Joint Lead Structuring Agents and Joint Lead Bookrunners, Wells Fargo Securities acted as Joint Lead Bookrunner, and BNP PARIBAS, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, MUFG, RBC Capital Markets, SOCIETE GENERALE and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey acted as Passive Bookrunners (for the Notes) and Co-Managers (for the Equity Certificates).
Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP acted as U.S. counsel to ALC and the Issuers, and Milbank LLP acted as U.S. counsel to the Global Coordinator, the Joint Lead Structuring Agents and the Joint Lead Bookrunners. EY acted as U.S. and Irish tax advisors. Walkers acted as Cayman Islands counsel and A&L Goodbody acted as Irish counsel. Vedder Price P.C. acted as counsel for ITE.
Canyon Financial Services Limited will act as the managing agent for the Issuers. Citibank, N.A. will act as trustee, security trustee, paying agent and operating bank. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. will also act as the liquidity facility provider. DealVector, Inc. will provide certain investor services for the holders of the Notes and Equity Certificates.
Oct 15 (Reuters) – United Airlines on Tuesday topped Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit, boosted by higher fares and lower fuel costs, and lifted its 2019 profit target despite the continued grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX.
Chicago-based United is one of three U.S. airlines that have each had to cancel more than 2,000 monthly flights through the end of the year as Boeing Co’s 737 MAX remains grounded following two deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
The flight cancellations have weighed on airline profits and costs, but strong travel demand, despite concerns of a global economic slowdown, continued to offset MAX headwinds and disruption in Hong Kong and China.
As a result, United raised its 2019 adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance to $11.25-$12.25 versus $10.50-$12.00 previously.
United shares, which closed up 1% at $87.88 before the earnings release, were about 1% higher in after-hours trading.
Total operating revenue rose 3.4% to $11.38 billion, underpinned by the airline’s three-year strategy to build up flight connections through its main U.S. hubs.
But closely watched unit costs excluding fuel and profit-sharing expenses, a concern for investors, rose 2.1%.
The airline, which is in talks with Boeing over 737 MAX compensation, did not provide any details on the estimated financial impact of the grounding.
Adjusted net income rose to $1.05 billion, or $4.07 per share, in the third quarter, from $834 million or $3.05 per share a year earlier.
Analysts on average had forecast $3.95 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
United management will host a conference call to discuss results on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT).
Fellow U.S. MAX operators Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, which have both warned of a pretax profit hit from the MAX grounding, are due to report quarterly results next week.
United, Southwest and American are all scheduling without the MAX until early January.
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Matthew Lewis)
FILE PHOTO: A logo of low cost carrier Spirit Airlines is pictured on an Airbus plane in Colomiers near Toulouse
(Reuters) – Spirit Airlines <SAVE> on Friday cut its third-quarter outlook for a key revenue measure as it estimates an about $25 million hit on its sales, hurt by hundreds of flights cancellations due to Hurricane Dorian.
The company now expects third quarter unit revenue to fall between 2.5% and 3.5% compared to its prior estimate of a decline of 1% to 2%.
The hurricane has led airline operators including American Airlines <AAL.O> and Delta Air Lines <DAL.N> to cancel thousands of flights across the United States this week.
Dorian, which briefly made a landfall on the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Friday, is expected to bring tropical storm winds to Nantucket Island and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts early on Saturday
FILE PHOTO: A Union Pacific rail car is parked at a Burlington National Santa Fe (BNSF) train yard in Seattle, Washington, U.S., February 10, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren
(Reuters) – Union Pacific Corp on Thursday reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, as the U.S. railroad raised prices, helping offset the impact of severe winter weather and record flooding that damaged rails in the Midwest.
Shares rose 2.7 percent to $173.80 in premarket trading.
Union Pacific’s operating ratio, a measure of operating expenses as a percentage of revenue and a key metric for Wall Street, increased 1 point to 63.6 percent from a year ago.
A lower ratio means more efficiency and higher profitability.
Total operating revenue fell to $5.4 billion from $5.5 billion.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based company’s net income rose to $1.4 billion, or $1.93 per share, in the first-quarter ended March 31 from $1.31 billion, or $1.68 per share, a year earlier.
Analysts, on average, expected a profit of $1.89 per share and revenue of $5.50 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Union Pacific and Berkshire Hathaway-owned BNSF are the largest U.S. freight rail operators with an annual revenue of more than $20 billion each.
(Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
FILE PHOTO: Cessna employee works on an engine of a Cessna business jet at the assembly line in their manufacturing plant in Wichita, Kansas March 12, 2013. REUTERS/Jeff Tuttle
(Reuters) – Cessna business jet maker Textron Inc reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, benefiting from robust aircraft deliveries, sending its share up 1.6 percent in early trading.
Business jet demand has been growing steadily in the United States, the world’s biggest market, on the back of an expanding economy and rising corporate profits.
Textron said it delivered 44 jets in the first quarter ended March 30, up from 36 last year. Commercial turboprop deliveries rose to 44 aircraft from 29 last year.
“We think this quarter has pretty much ticked all the boxes for Textron. Aviation growth has continued, with a positive book to bill in the quarter,” Vertical Research Partners analyst Robert Stallard said.
Textron has faced delays in final certification of its newest super mid-size Longitude jet, which is expected to contribute a ‘big chunk’ to the company’s revenue growth in 2019.
Analysts have warned that the certification delays from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration due to partial government shutdown followed by the regulator’s intense focus on re-certifying Boeing Co’s 737 MAX aircraft might impact sales growth at the company in the short.
Though the aviation business was among the drivers for a profit beat, Textron’s revenue missed Wall Street estimates, hurt by lower sales in its systems unit, which makes tactical armored patrol vehicles.
Textron re-affirmed its full-year profit outlook range of $3.55 to $3.75 per share.
Sales in the company’s aviation business, its biggest, rose 12.3 percent to $1.13 billion in the first quarter, while sales in the systems unit fell more than 20 percent to $307 million.
The company’s net income fell to $179 million in the quarter ended March 30 from $189 million a year earlier.
Textron earned 76 cents per share, above analysts’ average estimate of 68 cents, according to Refinitiv data.
Textron’s revenue fell 5.7 percent to $3.11 billion, below analysts’ estimates of $3.17 billion.
(Reporting by Divya R and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
