Brazil airline Azul readies another IPO attempt

Azul Linhas Aereas Brasileiras SA, Brazil's No 3 airline, is close to filing for regulatory clearance to launch an initial public offering after failed efforts to list shares in recent years, according to two people familiar with the plans. A listing could take place in the first two months of 2017, according to one of the people, who asked for anonymity to speak freely about the plan. Brazilian weekly magazine Exame reported Azul's IPO plans late last month.
The sources, interviewed this week, did not specify the transaction's potential size nor say if banks had been hired for the deal. Press representatives for Azul declined to comment. Fresh capital should help bolster the company's balance sheet as it receives widebody Airbus jets to add foreign routes from Brazil, a segment dominated by Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA and LATAM Airlines Group.