London South East prides itself on its community spirit, and in order to keep the chat section problem free, we ask all members to follow these simple rules. In these rules, we refer to ourselves as "we", "us", "our". The user of the website is referred to as "you" and "your".
By posting on our share chat boards you are agreeing to the following:
The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. As a user you agree to any information you have entered being stored in a database. You agree that we have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic or board at any time should we see fit. You agree that we have the right to remove any post without notice. You agree that we have the right to suspend your account without notice.
Please note some users may not behave properly and may post content that is misleading, untrue or offensive.
It is not possible for us to fully monitor all content all of the time but where we have actually received notice of any content that is potentially misleading, untrue, offensive, unlawful, infringes third party rights or is potentially in breach of these terms and conditions, then we will review such content, decide whether to remove it from this website and act accordingly.
Premium Members are members that have a premium subscription with London South East. You can subscribe here.
London South East does not endorse such members, and posts should not be construed as advice and represent the opinions of the authors, not those of London South East Ltd, or its affiliates.
Interesting stuff on ESL today with a big fine for PWC-the seeds for this car crash were sown a long time ago as I mentioned before
Southend Echo has picked up on reports in travel weekly of discussion for 2024 Balkan Holidays will include flights from Southend Airport to Bourgas in Bulgaria for the first time.
Keep'em coming...
Interesting - Well it is good to see plane spotters enjoying themselves at least!! Or at last!! Shows more traffic "ex-flight" and either way it is better to have it safer and the boundaries established.
I am surprised in fact they had any areas unfenced -but there you go. RAF will be pleased too.
It's nothing like that. They're merely fencing off an area, already within the airport itself, adjacent to the Jet Centre for security/privacy reasons. That area was popular with photographers and plane spotters. Nothing whatever to do with the the sale of the airport at all.
I see the Southend Echo is reporting that the Airport is fencing off larger areas of land which it owns and which are currently unfenced and so are in effect extending their outer fenced boundaries. Maybe parties interested in the Airport want to see more of the actual extend of the land owned and it appears after survey that they have more than it first appeared? Interesting!
Esken history with Southend Airport
The deal was worth £21 million. At the time, the book value of London Southend Airport's assets were £25.5 million, and the acquisition was later described as a “bargain purchase” by the Stobart Group.
The figure I recall for the number of annual terminal passenger for breakeven was 1.25m, although such a figure could only ever be a generalisation.
Also I didn't read anywhere in the presentation that "they are paying easyJet to operate from SEN". All I saw was a figure of £1.4m RECOVERED in respect of previous incentive payments to airlines. My understanding is that all recent deals had to be made on fully commercial terms. Therein lies one of the present difficulties in attracting new operators and routes.
I agree-some of us knew Tinkler was a dealer, not a plc leader-and boy are we there now.Deals with directors, debt binges, the Bond I harped on about in the face of abuse by a few on here, notably one who has disappeared-Gerry where are you now?
Carlisle ‘airport’-Jesus!It’s a field with crap infrastructure, poor access and about 40 miles from the Lakes.
I don’t blame the current or recent management-they inherited a group with massive negative cashflow, a folly borne of deals with no real sense and certainly not hanging together.
I’m only surprised so many were taken in by the sales pitch-some of whom should know a lot better.Tosca-what on earth??
Who actually knows anymore what breakeven passenger numbers are given that it appears they pay the airlines to be there. Probably via heavy discounts - who knows. The magic number seems to be around 3 million which they have no chance of getting near to. They'll be lucky to achieve 5% of that.
Some student doing a business degree in the future will surely do a dissertation on Esken about how not to run a PLC. The lack of accountability with the BOD, present and past is astounding.
Hazzy - you're so right. Why buy it now when in a couple of months Carlyle will be given it when this sorry business finally collapses.
What was the breakeven number of passengers again?
Did you pick up on the payments to airlines point in the presentation - they are paying easyjet to fly from Southend so more passengers will just increase the cash burn.
Also Carlyle aren't going to convert their debt to 30% equity in London Southend - why would they when they can wait for Esken to run out of cash and basically take it all.
The airport is eating cash mate-a few deals aren’t going to help in the short to medium term.I feel sorry for shareholders and current management-dealt a bad set of cards
I still have optimism. The results were for the year ended 28th February 2023. We know for the summer and future winter Flights are being increased. We also know Easy jet are talking about increasing the routes. They have found a buyer for the Bio mass unit. We also can see they are tendering the Airport at Southend later as revenues are increasing? J P Morgan buy in and increase their share? I wonder if they know how much the goodwill is worth? Esken talk about clearing debt and entering the main market? I see revenues increasing 15% (hopefully more from Feb 23) and debt reduced by 10%. I will stay in here and hope with fingers crossed for more growth before any sale!
I said many moons ago that the previous management ie Tinkler, sowed the seeds for this debacle-appalling
So the die is cast - Renewable Division to be sold with proceeds to be used to repay debt.
Renewables EBITDA is down which is disappointing
Aviation EBITDA is negative and more loss making
Balance sheet value is down from £70m to £30 million.
Once the renewables is sold (and the sales number becomes visible) then investors will have a clear view of the cash runway and based on the monthly cash burn this will determine the life left of the business.
The Aviation Division will continue to be loss making throughout the disposal process - another negative point I picked up on was that further capital investment is required if the airport was to get to 3 million passengers - therefore not sure it has infrastructure capable of getting to a break even position. Its probably a moot point when passenger numbers are only 89k and as this increases over time it will simply increase the losses of the Aviation Division.
It's really sad as I am not sure what they could have done any differently - the Airline being sold and then going out of business (meaning the lease liabilities returned to Esken) and then the pandemic have effectively completely stuffed the company and its shareholders.
My sympathy goes out to all the shareholders - lets hope the Renewable business delivers a good number.
Best regards Haz
Your right Latino, it does seem like a strange drop when J P Morgan are increasing there stake.
Strange drop when II is buying??
**** m, another wipeout. 25% down already.
I think the strategy is right-I said they should follow same a few years ago as the debt pile and bond was going to be a challenge.Hopefully something left for shareholders after the break up
This deal doesn’t scratch the surface but it may be the start of a bigger break up
Hope you're correct.
Only a couple of grand from me but I bet on the biggest suckers coming out of COVID. Cine, tui, boo, batm, iip
I see great news coming out from the Company regarding return of flights, and new routes and ambitions for the future. There are also no shorts registered which is another good sign.
I see the share price being volatile "only" due to the low price - which makes any movement of sale and or purchase having an effect, and a great opportunity to buy some more.
I see this as an opportunity if the news is good, as many brokers will.
Patience and not panic is the key to me. Keep cool and lets see what happens Wednesday.
The only news I have seen that is official has been good, if there is any bad news and we have been misled then then the BOD will be liable and so I very much doubt it. For the Airport even local Councillors have been speaking of how the Company is returning to form.
Try and remain positive. GLA/DYOR.
Yes any sale will need a buyer, and could be some tactical re-investment with one taking a loss for this tax year, before buying back early next week in a another Company name to sell into another tax year longer term, or changing the Company into which they wish the shares to be purchased? The news has been getting better - so I have no other explanation as even Short Interest Tracker has no record of any short on Esken at all. I am not surprised as if the results show an upswing and of increased Sentiment/Growth (which seems likely from what the Southend Echo and Yahoo have been saying in interviews with the CEO ). No short now held on the old Company names Stobart or Eddie Stobart as expected either.
Also soon a return to Jersey. Posted May'23 See below -I cannot see bad news coming with my hopes raised :-
uk.news.yahoo.com/southend-airport-detailed-talks-return-123748305.html
Very tempted to buy some more here at these silly low prices. As has been said on here that if the Company had a big problem then they would not have a confirmed date for the annual accounts release statement. They would would have been seeking extra time and the annual figs would have been delayed! Not so in this case where invitations have gone out for attendance.