Surf Air Mobility reveals revenue surge in listing paperwork

(Reuters) - Surf Air Mobility's revenue for a unit jumped nearly 72% in 2022, showed the electric aviation and regional air travel company's regulatory filing on Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to list its shares in New York.

The company, which had confidentially filed for a direct U.S. listing in November, said its unit Surf Air generated $20.27 million in revenue for the year ended Dec. 31, compared with $11.8 million a year earlier.

The listing comes at a challenging time for the U.S. public markets as dealmaking has been at a near standstill since last year, with investors grappling with heightened volatility in a rising interest rate environment.

Although, the interest in electric vehicle companies remains high as countries race to cut emissions and Wall Street shores up its green footprint.

Electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc in its November 2021 Nasdaq debut fetched a valuation of more than $100 billion, amid upbeat investor sentiment and a booming IPO market, even as its revenue generation at the time was negligible.

Surf Air Mobility is already generating revenue and so is Southern Airways Corporation, which it acquired in 2021.

For the three months ended March 31, Southern Airways Corporation generated revenue of $22.67 million, compared with $16.72 million a year earlier.

Surf Air Mobility last year terminated its $1.42 billion merger deal with a blank check firm Tuscan Holdings Corp II, which would have fetched Surf Air $467 million in cash proceeds.

As opposed to a traditional initial public offering, no new shares are created in a direct listing. The process allows insiders to sell their shares instantly and without the support of traditional underwriters.

Surf Air Mobility intends to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol 'SRFM'.

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Shinjini Ganguli)