Amazon buys 19% stake in cargo airline
Amazon.com Inc. has scooped up a minority stake in a cargo airline that operates a portion of its fast-growing air-cargo division, the latest sign of the retailer’s long-term ambitions to expand its air-freight operations.
Amazon spent $131 million to acquire about 13.5 million shares of Air Transport Services Group Inc., the air cargo operator said in a securities filing on Monday, exercising warrants Amazon had previously acquired.
Amazon also acquired roughly 865,000 additional shares through an agreement in which no cash changed hands. The purchases are contingent upon approval by the U.S. Department of Transportation, ATSG said.
Following that approval, Amazon will own about 19.5 per cent of ATSG, said Quint Turner, chief financial officer of the Wilmington, Ohio, company, a stake that gives Amazon the right to appoint one member of ATSG’s board of directors.
If Amazon leases more aircraft and exercises all its warrants, the company could own as much as 39.9 per cent of the cargo carrier, ATSG said in its annual report.
Earlier this year, Amazon announced its first aircraft purchases, buying 11 Boeing Co. 767-300 jets to join a fleet of leased planes.