EP 29 | Spirit's Final Flight, AMC Hangs On & The Parent Trap

Some companies die because the math was never going to work. Spirit, AMC, and fire truck pricing all make that case differently. Jason Sanjana and Kevin Eckhardt open with an emergency segment on Spirit Airlines (02:31), which ceased all operations on May 2nd after 34 years, 17,000 jobs, and a wind-down that happened overnight. Kevin, who covered the case at Octus, walks through why the Twitter narrative blaming the Biden DOJ is missing about 90% of the actual story. The Trump administration floated a $500 million bailout, but when the DIP lenders said no, it evaporated. The hosts debate whether Spirit was ever going to survive, why the JetBlue merger is a red herring, and what the crowdfunding campaign to "buy Spirit" actually tells you about the internet. Then (19:03), Krishan Sutharshana, senior distressed debt analyst at Octus, joins to walk through AMC. The largest movie theater chain in the world has raised nearly $4 billion in equity since the pandemic and still cannot generate positive free cash flow. Krishan explains the LME, the $3 billion maturity wall, the streaming window compression, and why the box office needs to hit $10 billion before AMC breaks even. From there (36:19), Kevin breaks down how private equity rolled up the fire truck market, with Rev Group sitting on $4.4 billion in unfilled orders while prices have risen 5x and used trucks jumped 62% in a year. The show closes with the debut of The Parent Trap (42:10), a new segment about the things you do for your parents.  Jason spent a long weekend helping his parents move out of the Pittsburgh house they lived in for 40 years. Kevin produced a photo of his father on the field alongside O.J. Simpson and Dan Marino, which raises more questions than it answers. And the show's first ever mystery write-in arrives: an orchid dispute at an assisted living facility from a listener who is definitely not anyone on the production team. The hosts took it extremely seriously and provided the full legal analysis it deserved. ----more---- Hosted by Jason Sanjana & Kevin Eckhardt Guest: Krishan Sutharshana (Senior Distressed Debt Analyst, Octus) Produced and Edited by Tanya Hubbard A Production of The Octus Podcast Network