November 4, 2024
The Dubai-based owner of VistaJet and XOJET says it has closed on its acquisition of JetSmarter.
Less than two months after announcing plans to buy JetSmarter, a spokesperson for Vista Global confirmed to Private Jet Card Comparisons that the deal has closed.
While no official announcement was made, a link to the JetSmarter website now appears at the bottom of the VistaJet website next to XOJET, the U.S. operator and charter broker it purchased last fall.
Similarly, while Vista Global announced the deal to buy XOJET, it didn’t issue any release when the deal closed.
With the JetSmarter acquisition, Vista Global and its founder Thomas Flohr in less than a year have significantly remade the company, beginning with the establishment of the holding U.A.E.-based holding company, which was announced shortly before the XOJET deal.
The acquisition of JetSmarter is believed to mainly be for the one-time unicorn’s technology platform that could provide improved digital access to the group’s fleet of approximately 120 super midsized, large cabin and ultra-long-haul private jets.
The JetSmarter deal closes with the Ft. Lauderdale company still under intense scrutiny. In April, CNBC reported it may currently be a subject of an FBI investigation, while a number of lawsuits from unhappy customers continue.
In late April, JetSmarter won a motion to compel two of the plaintiffs to move their cases against it from the courts to arbitration, a stipulation of the membership agreement. According to Florida Record, U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom concluded, “The court finds that a valid agreement to arbitrate exists, and, thus, there is a strong presumption in favor of arbitration.”
The court ruled Laine and Seidler had agreed to the arbitration by clicking through and accepting the terms of the membership agreement, according to the report.
Earlier this year, JetSmarter had reached a settlement agreement on a class action brought through arbitration. A hearing date to possibly approve the settlement was recently moved to July.
Recently, Vista Global was in the news refinancing $550 million senior unsecured bonds, what was described as a routine event.
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