Vista Global upsized a secured term loan by $200 million and increased its undrawn revolving credit facility by $50 million.
S&P Global Ratings has provided a bulletin after Vista Global upsized a senior secured loan and revolving credit facility.
The parent of private jet flight providers VistaJet and XO closed the deals last week.
It is North America’s third-largest charter/fractional private jet operator behind NetJets and Flexjet.
S&P confirmed that Vista Global had increased its new senior secured term loan to $700 million from a proposed $500 million.
It also increased its undrawn revolving credit facility to $315 million from $265 million.
The bulletin was titled, “Vista Global Holding Ltd.’s Debt Upsizing Further Improves Its Liquidity Position.”
The moves “further boost its liquidity position.”
S&P said, “Its liquidity sources have increased due to the larger RCF, and its forecast liquidity uses are lower due to the paydown of existing secured debt facilities, which have a high amortization over the next 12 months.”
It added, “The pricing on the secured term loan of Secured Overnight Financing Rate plus 3.75% was slightly lower than expected, reducing Vista Global’s interest burden. ”
S&P continued:
‘We forecast that the group’s liquidity sources will cover uses by about 2.3x over the next 12 months. The debt upsizing resulted in no changes to the issue and recovery ratings for Vista Global’s secured term loan (‘BB-; 2 (70%-90%), rounded estimate: 80%) and unsecured notes (B’; 5 (10%-30%), rounded estimate: 10%).’
The rating agency also said Vista Global “pledged additional jets to the upsized term loan to maintain an opening loan-to-value ratio of just below 65%, supporting the recovery prospects on the loan.”
The bulletin does not impact its ratings of Vista Global.
Vista Global Chairman Thomas Flohr rebutted reports of falling cash to a Dubai business radio show and CNBC in February.
His appearance followed another Financial Times article about the privately held aviation company’s finances.
The Financial Times noted Vista Global made a small net profit of $1 million in the first three quarters of 2024.
That followed a net loss of $139 million in 2023 for the entire year.
However, part of the improvement was driven by how the group accounts for depreciation.
The Financial Times noted, “For 2023, Vista changed auditors to PwC and altered the conservative depreciation schedules that Flohr has said contributed to Vista’s (net) losses. After cutting $135 million from Vista’s depreciation expense, the airline made slightly improved net losses of $139 million for (2023), and was judged a going concern.”
According to the Financial Times, Vista Global’s Adjusted EBITDA was up 7% to $600 million year over year on revenues of around $2.1 billion, also up 7%.
However, the report was headlined, “VistaJet cash reserves drop as super-rich cut travel plans.”
It said the company’s cash had dropped to $62 million at the end of Q3 2024.
The Financial Times did add Vista Global had available capacity from the $230 million revolving credit facility.
It also had available funds of $105 million at the end of September.
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For his part, Flohr says he intends to trim debt after a growth binge that saw the company triple more than triple in size since 2018 when it acquired XOJet.
In addition to adding new Global 7500s and Challenger 350s from Bombardier, it was active in M&A.
Acquisitions included operators Jet Edge, Air Hamburg, and Red Wing Aero.
It also snapped up brokers JetSmarter, Apollo Jets, and Camber.
VistaJet markets its versions of a jet card called the Program and VJ25 as alternatives between ad hoc charter and full or fractional ownership.
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