Sun Country Airlines Holdings Inc.’s initial public offering has boosted the company’s balance sheet and put it in a better position to grow, CEO Jude Bricker said in a news release.
“While we remain in an unpredictable environment, our business is continuing to recover from the impact of COVID-19 on industry demand,” Bricker said. “I am encouraged by the recent improvement we are seeing in forward bookings. Demand really picked up in mid-February, and that momentum continues.”
Bricker said the Minneapolis-based company’s charter business is making a speedy recovery from the economic fallout of the pandemic, and the cargo business is filing a full schedule. As of today, our summer schedule is sold to a higher load factor as compared to the same time in 2019.
QUARTERLY RESULTS
For the quarter ended March 31, Sun Country re- ported net income of $12.4 million and income before income tax of $17.8 million, on $127.6 million of revenue. Adjusting to remove $22.5 million of net benefit from the CARES Act grant the company received during the quarter and other one time items, adjusted income before income tax for the quarter was a loss of $4.7 million.
Operating income during the quarter was $24.9 million, producing an operating margin of 20%, while adjusted operating income was positive $1.2 million, resulting in an adjusted operating income margin of 0.9%.
FIRST-QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS
On March 19 the company successfully completed its initial public offering, with its stock trading on the NASDAQ under the sym- bol SNCY. Approximately 10.5 million shares were issued, raising approximately $225 million of net proceeds after deducting under- writing discounts and commissions and offering fees and expenses.
Sun Country repaid its U.S. Treasury loan, received through the CARES Act program, with $46.3 million of proceeds received from its initial public offering.
The company received a $32.2 million grant from the CARES Act Payroll Support Program 2 during the first quarter. On April 22 the company received an additional $4.8 million from the program.