Wheels Up 2022 Losses Revised to $555 Million

Wheels Up's stock price continued its downward slide after the company recently released its tardy 10-K annual report showing its 2022 losses widened by nearly 10 percent from its earlier results. For the year, the company reported a $555 million loss on revenues of $1.58 billion.

Company shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) closed on April 2 at 56 cents, down more than 49 percent over the last month—putting the company on the road to a delisting action by the exchange. Wheels Up stock has lost 94 percent of its value since its initial listing via a special purpose acquisition company in July 2021. On April 3, the company announced plans for a reverse stock split to avoid delisting. Under the plan, current shareholders would receive one share for every five to 10 shares currently held. It does not impact the valuation of the company, and the plan needs to be approved at the company's annual meeting next month. 

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A critical piece of information in the 10-K filing is likely to give investors further pause. Wheels Up said, “We identified material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting, and determined that they resulted in our internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures not being effective, during the year ended Dec. 31, 2022. If we are not able to remediate these material weaknesses, or we identify additional deficiencies in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls, including disclosure controls and procedures, this could result in material misstatements of our financial statements or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations.”  

However, the 10-K filing also noted that the company had more than $500 million in cash at the end of calendar 2022, enough to fund continuing operations for at least 12 months at the current burn rate. 

Meanwhile, Wheels Up is continuing to take remedial actions to alleviate service disruptions caused by supply-chain issues, rapidly onboarding a string of strategic acquisitions since becoming a publicly traded company, and aggressively expanding its membership during the COVID crisis by more than 25 percent. It said it expects to continue to post losses this year, albeit smaller ones.