JetBlue IPO Summary

.pdf

School

San Jose State University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

270

Subject

Finance

Date

Feb 20, 2024

Type

pdf

Pages

2

Uploaded by kamdaranuj9

Report
JetBlue IPO Summary JetBlue decided to IPO in 2001 to continue its growth and offset its investment losses. JetBlue was led by David Neeleman who had made several innovations to the airline industry prior. Under his leadership, JetBlue improved customer experience (leather seats, free LiveTV, preassigned seating, high customer service, and low fares) while reducing operating costs to the lowest out of any major US airline. This in addition to its economies of scale from only having one aircraft model earned them a strong capital base. They also had strong brand loyalty due to their strong customer service and flying experience, especially in New York with 21 million customers. The initial price of the stock was $22-24. There was strong demand for the initial offering so the management team wanted to raise the price and show confidence to the market so they raised it to $25-26. But even then they felt that it was undervalued. However, their goal was not to maximize IPO potential but to raise capital for the short term and ensure positive returns for employees. They also wanted to price the stock at a reasonable rate to ensure long-term growth and to better align with their low-cost strategy. Analysis An Initial Public Offering (IPO), is when a private company sells securities to the public for the first time. The company goes from a small number of shareholders to a large number of investors and the stock is publicly traded on the stock exchange. This allows the company to raise a large amount of capital and increase its brand awareness. In exchange, the company cedes control over its organization. Existing shareholders lose a substantial percentage of ownership of the company and they also lose voting rights as all common shareholders can vote. JetBlue should analyze whether this tradeoff is worth it for the company. They should also do a market analysis to see under which conditions did similar companies IPO and how those companies performed afterwards. The discounted cash flows model shows that the stock value is $48.21. I assumed a terminal growth rate of 2% since it was not provided. WACC was calculated by using Southwest data since it was not provided for JetBlue. The cash flows were calculated by subtracting the change in net working capital from NOPAT (Exhibit 13). Then by dividing the sum of the present values of the discounted cash flows in the horizon and terminal periods by the number of shares outstanding (41 million), the stock price is calculated. See Excel file for details* The comparable multiple method shows that the stock price is $45.45. This is computed by taking the average of all the P/E ratios of all the airlines and multiplying it with the EPS of JetBlue(Exhibit 7).
See Excel file for details* Both stock valuation models result in similar results (DCF: 48.21, Comparable: 45.45). Both models show that the stock is undervalued from its initial IPO price of 27. However, the stock did make a comeback to more accurately reflect its true value as the stock rose $45 at the end of the first day. JetBlue’s financial statements showed that it was in a healthy state with a couple of minor exceptions. The Balance sheet showed that it had a poor current ratio of (144,265/194,126) in 2001 indicating that it will have a tough time paying off its current liabilities using its current assets (Exhibit 2). In addition, its income statement showed that it turned a profit in 2001, just three years after it was founded (Exhibit 3). This is a remarkable feat especially for an airline company with high fixed costs, barriers to entry, and dealing with poor market conditions due to the 9/11 tragedy. Recommendations Since JetBlue had mostly great financials, an IPO would be great for them as a cash infusion would help them grow exponentially. Also, they were able to handle adverse market conditions like 9/11 by increasing innovation and customer service separating themselves from the competition. A cash infusion would allow them to buy more planes, fly more routes, and continue to increase their operating margins. It would also help them cover their investment losses (Exhibit 4) and increase their cash flow. If they fail to grow the company could lose its competitive advantage and run the risk of being pushed out of the market by bigger competitors. Therefore they had to take advantage of their situation and go public. The market was so receptive to JetBlue’s offering of 5.5 million shares at $22, that JetBlue increased its price from $22 to 27 dollars. On the day of trading the stock closed at 45 dollars and JetBlue raised a total of 158 million dollars. Thus showing that the IPO was successful.
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
  • Access to all documents
  • Unlimited textbook solutions
  • 24/7 expert homework help