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On the same day, Richard Branson's Virgin Group became an investor. The private train company Brightline quietly filed its case with the Securities and Exchange Commission to become a publicly traded company.
Virgin Trains USA, officially adopted on Friday, filed a Form S-1 in which it declared its intention to start trading its shares in the open market.
A spokesman for Brightline declined to comment, citing federal security laws. Under the so-called "silence period" rule, a corporation filing a registration statement with the SEC must wait for its approval before it can make other public statements.
"We are the first new private long-distance passenger railroad in the United States for more than a century and believe that our company represents a scalable model for 21st century passenger travel in North America. ", Says the company in a document. "Our goal is to build rail systems in North America that connect major metropolitan areas with significant traffic and congestion. We believe that the economic aspects of passenger rail service offer an extremely convincing investment opportunity. "
In this case, Virgin Trains is planning a passenger rail service in Florida, with stops in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and, possibly, Orlando and Tampa, "will stabilize by the fourth quarter of 2023 or the first quarter of 2024., "After a" ramp-up period "of about two years.
During this period, the company said, the number of passengers is expected to increase "as travelers become familiar with the new rail service and adjust their passenger habits."
The company uses Orlando's traffic forecast for its financial outlook, with a total potential of 6.6 million passengers per year for a fee of $ 73.
"We plan to offer a service between Miami and Orlando for fares below the cost of driving or flying for individual travelers," the company said in the document. "Based on the rates we expect for an individual traveler, we expect the train ride from Miami to Orlando to be about 25% cheaper than driving and about 30% cheaper than the plane. We plan to carry around 6.6 million passengers a year.
The company does not indicate the total number of its current customers, but is talking about a 42% increase in the number of users in the second quarter of 2018 compared to the first quarter of 2018 and 50% in the third quarter of 2018 compared to the second quarter of 2018.
In October, a public file on the company's debt indicated that the number of Brightline passengers was 106,090 for the months of April, May and June and that the total number of passengers was 180,870 since beginning of the year.
"The trends driving growth are continuing and, as a result, our management expects the number of passengers in the fourth quarter of 2018 to continue to show strong growth," he said. the society. "We are confident that our new brand and relationship with the Virgin Group could help accelerate our passenger growth as we continue to make progress toward stabilizing passenger numbers."
The company also announced plans to develop adjacent properties at its resorts, using Florida East Coast Industries, its parent company, as its lead developer.
The company says it wants to expand to other routes, including Atlanta in Charlotte, North Carolina, Dallas to Houston, and Los Angeles to San Diego. This is in addition to his proposed itinerary between Tampa and Orlando and his newly acquired route between Southern California and Las Vegas.
The company is owned by Fortress Investment Group, which also owns Florida East Coast Industries, a direct descendant of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway Co.
Filing S-1 provides an overview of the current financial position of the company. For the first nine months of 2018, the company recorded a loss of over $ 87 million. During the same period, its revenues exceeded $ 5 million. Its debt amounts to more than $ 600 million and the total cash to about $ 49 million.
Since Brightline began testing in 2017, at least seven people have been killed in accidents. Several non-fatal incidents also occurred, including a seriously injured woman in Pompano Beach. In most incidents, police reports did not quote Brightline as the manager.
The company ranks as "an emerging growth company," which means in securities law "that it can take advantage of some of the reduced disclosure requirements and other requirements that it has. and apply to public companies ".
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