Southwest Airlines closes acquisition of AirTran Holdings

Southwest Airlines has closed on its purchase of all of the outstanding common stock of AirTran Holdings, Inc., the former parent company of AirTran Airways (AirTran). Based on the average of Southwest Airlines’ closing prices for the 20 trading days ending three trading days prior to May 2, 2011, of $11.90, the transaction values AirTran common stock at approximately $7.57 per share, or $1.0 billion in the aggregate, excluding shares issuable upon conversion of AirTran’s outstanding convertible notes. Each share of AirTran common stock will be exchanged for $3.75 in cash and 0.321 shares of Southwest Airlines’ common stock. Assuming no conversion of AirTran’s outstanding convertible notes, AirTran stockholders will receive 44 million shares of Southwest Airlines common stock, which will represent 5.6% of the Southwest Airlines common shares outstanding. Additionally, they will receive cash of $518 million. Including the existing AirTran net indebtedness (including outstanding convertible notes) and capitalized aircraft operating leases, the total transaction value is $3.2 billion.