Aviation charter specialist Air Partner (AIP) has seen its restructuring efforts pay off, with strong figures for the year ended January 31. Shifting the sales structure from a 'territory-led' to a 'product-led' model has boosted demand for its commercial and private-jet broking services, prompting a 28 per cent increase in underlying pre-tax profit to £4.3m and offsetting a decline in government contracts.
Chief executive Mark Briffa admitted impairment charges of more than £700,000, relating to out-of-date technology investments, had left him "quite cross". In response, Colin Jowers joined Air Partner as global director of business technology in January with a mandate to place technology "at the heart" of the company.
The group also booked £646,000 of restructuring costs, but says these items – largely relating to redundancy payments – are unlikely to be repeated. Management will focus on its growing US business, which has capitalised on a number of stricken cruise-passenger evacuations and the chance to fly the World Cup trophy around the world.
In the private-jet broking unit, where the company's JetCard continues to attract high-net-worth leisure customers, the US also played a key role in driving divisional revenues up by 21 per cent and underlying profit up 36 per cent to £1.5m.
Brokerage Liberum downgraded its forecasts for fiscal 2015 and now expects pre-tax profit of £4.4m, giving EPS of 28p.
AIR PARTNER (AIP) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 548p | MARKET VALUE: | £56m | |
| TOUCH: | 520-550p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 620p | LOW: 333p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.6% | PE RATIO: | 29 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 121p | NET CASH: | £18.4m | |
| Year to 31 Jan* | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 209 | 3.2 | 22.4 | 12.7 |
| 2014 | 224 | 2.8 | 19.2 | 14 |
| % change | +7 | -13 | -14 | +10 |
Ex-div:12 May Payment:16 Jun *Pro forma figures due to change in accounting period | ||||
