Question: Read the article below WSJ Jan. 2 2 , 2 0 2 4 How One Debt - Laden Company Could Create a Storm for Private

Read the article below
WSJ Jan. 22,2024 How One Debt-Laden Company Could Create a Storm for Private Jets
Based in Malta, privately owned VistaJet grew at breakneck speed after 2019 to become the worlds second-largest flier of private jets. But, through complex financial engineering involving its founder and owner, Swiss entrepreneur Thomas Flohr, it also accumulated big debts that could prove unsustainable. The company offers a kind of private-jet taxi service.
Investors are getting increasingly worried: A VistaJet bond issued last May, which was very oversubscribed, is now selling off. On Friday, its yield closed at 17.23%, the highest on record. This means a price of 77 cents on the dollar and a spread over Treasury yields of 13.18 percentage points.
Disclosures related to VistaJets bond showed the companys net loss rising to $139.5 million in 2022, compared with $50.5 million in 2021. Its net debt increased to an eye-watering 23.5 times equity, up from 7.8 times a year earlier. Auditor EY warned in April that a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the Groups ability to continue as a going concern, the Financial Times reported in May.
Delta Air Lines rescued one of VistaJets peers, U.S.-based Wheels Up, from a bankruptcy that would have brought 180 planes to the market. VistaJet is bigger. During the pandemic, VistaJet owned fleet to 270 jets, Export Development Canada(EDC), a public export credit agency, financed many of them, though VistaJet was on the hook for the money.
VistaJets rapid growth was facilitated by state-backed guarantees. EDCs transactions with VistaJet amounted to at least 1.7 billion Canadian dollars between 2020 and 2022 alone, official data shows.
Perhaps the strategy could be made to work, but the firms deep financial losses suggest that it spent too much on big aircraft. Flohr has said he is focused on improving earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, but this isnt the most important metric for a capital-intensive business that must pay back hefty investments.
VistaJet left its high-growth phase behind in 2023, which will have improved its finances and freed up more cash to pay lenders. But there is only so much to go around: Operating cash flow in 2022 amounted to just 16% of the companys debts at the end of that year. Meanwhile, soaring bond yields will likely push up the cost of refinancing.
Were VistaJet to sell some of its Bombardier jets to reduce debt, it would put pressure on used prices. If, in the worst case, the company suddenly collapsed, the impact on the market could be nearly unprecedented.
The operator has 94 Challengersalmost as many as the 109 for sale in the entire secondhand market, data by broker Guardian Jet shows. Its 18 Global 7500s, hard-to-move aircraft with a price tag of $60 million each, would overwhelm the eight currently available. AND ANSWER THE QUESTION: B. Why the large numbers of firms private jets is a consideration for the rating and yield of VistaJet bonds?

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