A third party – Alinfra S.C. - is to make a voluntary public offer for 49% of Grupo Aeroméxico before the airline holding's next general shareholder’s meeting on January 14, according to a stock market filing.
The offer would give existing shareholders the option to withdraw from the capital stock before the capitalisation of debt and new contributions into the capital stock, which would dilute the current shares to near zero on the emergence from Chapter 11 restructuring, the airline said in a statement to investors.
Reuters reported that Aeroméxico shares rose sharply on speculative buying, after plummeting nearly 80% to their weakest point earlier in December on the news of the tender offer that devalued the shares. At the time, Aeroméxico had not revealed the name of the company.
Alinfra had filed a formal request to this effect with Mexico’s financial regulator (Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores - CNBV) and the Mexican bourse (Bolsa Mexicana de Valores) on December 23.
Alinfra would offer one Mexican centavo for each Mexican peso for each of Aeroméxico’s outstanding shares. As Delta Air Lines would not participate in the offering, the maximum number of shares to be acquired would be 331,480,713, representing 49% of the capital stock. This would represent less than 0.01% of the total future new shares in the company.
“Within the new shareholders will be the group of strategic Mexican shareholders, Delta Air Lines, and the remaining shares distributed among all new investors and creditors that capitalise their new capital contributions and recognised claims in new shares representing Aeroméxico’s future capital stock.
“The offering will be sponsored with funds of the bidder, coordinated with Aeroméxico, and subject to a schedule that allows Aeroméxico's existing shareholders to have an opportunity to sell their shares through the securities market before the effectiveness of the plan and of the resolutions to be adopted by the shareholders meeting," the statement said.
It was anticipated that the shareholders’ meeting would approve several resolutions to implement the airline’s Chapter 11 restructuring plan, including a capital increase, the capitalisation of debt, and an injection of new capital, the airline said. The offer would be consummated after the restructuring plan was confirmed at the shareholders’ meeting.
“As we have been reiterating, the public offer to acquire the current shares will provide our current shareholders with an option to exit the market, prior to the imminent and expected dilution that, as it has been reported in previous relevant events, including since February of 2021, these would suffer when the capital increase and capitalisation of liabilities derived from the plan were carried out. That is, as reported since February and expressly stated in the plan, once the terms of the plan take full legal effect, the current shareholders will be diluted and the value expectations regarding their current stock positions will be close to zero,“ the airline explained.
Aeroméxico said it continued to work with all of its key stakeholders to obtain court approval of the plan and to emerge from Chapter 11 as soon as possible.
According to the restructuring plan, Aeroméxico is to raise about USD720 million of new capital and USD762.5 million of new debt, in addition to the capitalisation of a large portion of its debt, which is to give it enough liquidity to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
