(New York) The US federal government will sell stock options acquired in several airlines in 2020 in exchange for the bailout provided to the sector when the COVID-19 pandemic reduced air transport to a crawl .
“The US Department of the Treasury today announced its intention to conduct a series of auctions to sell its options to purchase certain publicly traded airlines,” the Ministry of Economy and Finance announced on Friday in a communicated.
In April 2020, to preserve jobs and avoid bankruptcies in an airline sector suddenly brought to its knees by the pandemic, the American federal government adopted a $25 billion aid plan for the sector.
In exchange, he received “warrants”, financial products that can be converted into shares, effectively becoming a minority shareholder in these airlines.
The Treasury specified on Friday that the sale could only be made “to qualified institutional buyers, accredited institutional investors or to the issuing airlines”.
“The proceeds from these sales will provide the American taxpayer with an additional return, in return for the financial assistance and liquidity that the Treasury had provided to these airlines during the pandemic,” it is emphasized in the press release.
The affected airlines are Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Allegiant Air, American Airlines, SkyWest Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and JetBlue Airways.
Potential buyers must submit their application before May 24, and the sale must begin the week of June 3.
The April 2020 aid plan for the airline sector was part of the vast economic aid plan, worth $2.2 trillion, which was adopted in Congress under the administration of Donald Trump.
Airlines could also access long-term, low-rate loans.