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Vista Global Holding, the private aviation group founded by Swiss businessman Thomas Flohr, is weighing a European stock market listing that could raise more than $1 billion and value the company above $10 billion, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.
A listing at that level would put a public price on a fortune that has gone unmeasured for eight years. Forbes last valued Flohr at $2.3 billion in March 2018 before dropping him from its billionaires list, and Vista is privately held with no public valuation. Flohr told CNBC in March 2025 that he owned 84% of the group and intended to retain control through the equity raise then under negotiation.
What his stake will be worth at listing is not simply 84% of the price. A consortium led by the Singapore private equity firm RRJ Capital bought $600 million of convertible preference shares in March 2025, and those convert to ordinary stock when Vista goes public. The IPO would issue further shares on top of that. Both dilute him.
Vista is working with Bank of America, UBS and UniCredit on the potential offering, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Milan and Zurich are among the venues under consideration, and any listing would probably come next year. A Vista spokesperson said the company had engaged advisers and was assessing options, including a potential European listing. Bank of America, UBS and UniCredit declined to comment.
Flohr, 66, came to aviation from finance. He was born in Switzerland on March 17, 1960, the son of a teacher, studied at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and spent his career at Comdisco, an American computing and finance company, where he became president in 1997. He left seven years later, bought a Learjet 60 in 2003, and founded VistaJet the following year with three aircraft.
The business sells access rather than ownership. Customers buy memberships and book flights on aircraft Vista owns and operates, with journeys running from 30 minutes to 17 hours non-stop, which removes both the cost of owning a jet and the empty repositioning legs that make chartering expensive.
Flohr created Vista Global as a Dubai holding company in 2018 to consolidate a fragmented industry, and it has bought steadily since. It acquired the American operator XOJet and rebranded its brokerage as XO, took JetSmarter, Red Wing Aviation, Talon Air, Jet Edge, Apollo Jets and Camber, and in 2022 bought Air Hamburg, the largest German private jet operator. VistaJet flies 98 aircraft under its Malta air operator's certificate, and the group's total fleet reaches roughly 360 including partner operators in the United States.
Debt is the reason a listing matters. ACC Aviation put Vista's net debt at about $4 billion in November 2025, financing a fleet the group owns outright rather than selling down to fractional buyers. The Financial Times examined the company's finances in May 2023, after a $500 million bond offering, setting out four years of net losses and a shortfall between cash held and prepayments taken for flights not yet flown. Flohr has said the borrowing paid for aircraft and acquisitions and that the losses reflect conservative depreciation, and he told investors his majority holding was an equity cushion that could be tapped for liquidity.
The company has since cut that burden. Vista closed the $600 million RRJ preferred equity in March 2025 and a $700 million term loan in April, a combined $1.3 billion it said would reduce annual debt service by about $160 million. Jefferies advised Vista on the RRJ deal and UBS advised RRJ. Andalusian Private Capital joined the consortium alongside Rhône Group, which has backed Vista since 2017.
Demand is the case Vista will put to investors. Leona Qi, president of VistaJet in the United States, told Bloomberg Businessweek this month that customers increasingly treat private flying as a management tool for productivity and mobility rather than a luxury purchase.
Nothing is settled. The people familiar with the process said deliberations continue and that size, timing and venue could all change.
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