Republic Airways Holdings Inc., operator of several regional airlines, cited a big one-time gain related to its acquisition of Frontier Airlines as it reported that its fourth-quarter profit rose nearly 6 percent on higher sales.
The fourth-quarter results included $109.2 million of goodwill and other impairment charges and a $203.7 million gain on bargain purchase related to the acquisition of Frontier Airlines. Excluding one-time items, net income was 3 cents a share.
Revenue in the quarter rose 87.9 percent to $637.3 million from $339.3 million a year earlier. Republic acquired Frontier in the fourth quarter.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who generally exclude one-time items from their estimates, were expecting fourth-quarter earnings of 6 cents a share on revenue of $342.5 million.
Full-year profit came to $39.7 million, or $1.13 a share, compared to profit of $84.6 million, or $2.42 a share, in 2008. Twelve-month revenue came to $1.64 billion, compared to $1.48 billion in 2008.
As of the end of 2009, the company had $350.2 million in cash, of which $192.7 million was restricted. Its debt stood at $2.79 billion as of Dec. 31.
Besides Frontier, Republic also operates Republic Airlines, Midwest Airlines, Chautauqua Airlines, Lynx Aviation and Shuttle America.
