Welcome to The Brink. It’s Erin Hudson and Reshmi Basu in New York, where we’ve been reporting on the post-Covid struggles of air cargo company Western Global. We also have the latest on UK utility Thames Water, German real estate company Adler and Bed Bath & Beyond. Follow this link to subscribe. Send us feedback and tips at [email protected] or Tweet/DM to @EK_Hudson.
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Three years ago, things were booming for Western Global Airlines, a little known cargo carrier based in Florida. Consumers, stuck at home and flush with pandemic stimulus checks, were binge-buying at online retailers and flooding Western Global with shipping orders, Erin Hudson and Reshmi Basu report.
Ultra-low interest rates, meanwhile, had kept financial markets brimming with so much cash that the airline issued its first-ever bond, a $400 million, junk-rated deal that allowed the company to fund a payout to founders including CEO Jim Neff and an employee stock program in a bid to stave off efforts to unionize its workforce.