Investors knew as early as July that these interim results from aviation charter specialist Air Partner (AIP) would be poor. That's when it announced a major profit warning, caused by the company’s commercial jet operation, which is dependent on ad-hoc projects with the likes of Google, Royal Caribbean and Accenture. Big contracts failed to materialise this year, causing revenues to fall 35 per cent to £60m and underlying pre-tax profits to halve to £1.1m.
Yet chief executive Mark Briffa is optimistic about the second half. Overheads in the commercial jet division fell 6 per cent to £4.7m in the first half, and cost-cutting will remain a top priority this year. What’s more, the group’s JetCard product – which sells flying hours to high net worth customers – is doing well. JetCard deposits are at a record high of £11.9m, with £5m of card sales during the period. Of course, the utilisation of these card deposits is crucial: Air Partner can’t recognise profit on sales until the flying hours are used.
Mr Briffa said trading in the second half was showing an improvement over the first six months, but figures are still trailing the same period last year. Analysts at Liberum expect pre-tax profits of £2.4m for the current year, giving EPS of 21.4p, down from £4.1m and 29.8p respectively.
| AIR PARTNER (AIP) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 330p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 34m | |
| TOUCH: | 320-340p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 620p | LOW: 310p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 4.4% | PE RATIO: | 18 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 121p | NET CASH: | £18m | |
| Half-year to 31 July | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 116 | 2.3 | 14.8 | 6.05 |
| 2014 | 93.1 | 1.1 | 13.6 | 6.66 |
| % change | -20 | -52 | -8 | +10 |
Ex-div:01 Oct Payment:24 Oct | ||||
