- The Details surrounding Wheels Up SPAC Deal
- Wheels UP CEO Kenny Ditcher’s plans for the future
- How This SPAC Deal came to happen
Wheels Up, the second largest provider of private aircraft has entered into an agreement to become publicly-traded. This transaction is valued at about $2.1 billion and the company will be renamed Wheels Up Experience Inc. This deal bring Wheels Up together with SPAC that counts funds associated with luxury conglomerate LVMH and Bernard Arnault as minority investors. The New York-based company is set to receive $790 million in gross proceeds on the transaction, including $550 million from investors such as T. Rowe Price, Fidelity and Franklin Advisors. Three years after selling Marquis Jet Partners in 2010, Kenny Dichter, the founder of Wheels Up, has added an aircraft sales unit to target aircraft owners while seeking to broaden its market of entry-level flyers with a new membership tier starting under $3,000.
Wheels Up began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “UP,” one day after closing its merger with blank-check firm Aspirational Consumer Lifestyle Corp. “Today is a special milestone for Wheels Up,” said CEO Kenny Dichter. “Since our 2013 launch, it has been our mission to create a dynamic platform to democratize private aviation making it possible for significantly more people to experience private flying.”
