Virgin America takes off on debut

摘要

US and Mexico-focused low-cost carrier virgin America made a strong debut on Nasdaq last Friday, immediately jumping 17% on debut after riding a tailwind of upbeat developments in the airline sector over the past month. The sale of 13.3m shares, of which 13.1m were primary and 0.2m came from an employee stock scheme, priced at US$23 each, the upper end of a US$21-$24 initial range. Barclays and Deutsche Bank led the offering, which was comfortably oversubscribed ahead of pricing. Friday's Nasdaq debut saw Virgin open at US$27 before rising to as high as US$29.74 in early trading.