The Firm represented Avianca Holdings S.A. in connection with its $408.5 million initial public offering made by Avianca Holdings and certain selling shareholders of American depositary shares, each representing eight preferred shares, registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Avianca Holdings’ preferred shares have been listed on the Colombian stock exchange since 2011. The ADSs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “AVH.”
Avianca Holdings is a leading airline in Latin America resulting from the combination of Avianca Airlines and Taca Airlines in February 2010, two established airlines with geographically complementary operations in the Andean region (Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) and Central America (Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama). Avianca offers passenger and cargo service through more than 5,500 weekly scheduled flights to more than 100 destinations in over 25 countries around the world. Simpson Thacher represented Avianca Airlines in its business combination with Taca Airlines.
The company intends to use substantially all of the net proceeds from the offering to finance its fleet modernization plan and for other general corporate purposes.
The Simpson Thacher team for the offering included David L. Williams, Benjamin Wells and Alejandro de Ramon-Laca (Capital Markets), Sean FitzGerald (Tax), with invaluable coverage provided by Xavier Kowalski, Juan M. Naveira, Alexander Coedo and Joseph J. Ronca. Avianca’s largest shareholder, Synergy Aerospace Corp., was represented by Caroline B. Gottschalk and Chi Pan (Mergers & Acquisitions).