some commentary28 Jul 2014 15:16
Aircraft charter broker Air Partner warned on profits after a weak performance by its commercial jet business, hitting its shares.
Air Partner said group trading since June had been worse than expected mainly due to a lack of sizeable "ad-hoc" commercial jet projects.
It said the weakness would mean the group would make a pre-tax profit of "not less than £1.1m" in the six months ending July 31st.
"The board currently expects the second half performance to be in line with prior years," it said.
Trading in the rest of the group met management expectations with the private jet division performing strongly across the US and UK and in new JetCard sales.
The company's freight division continued to progress, albeit from a low base.
It said it would declare a first half dividend of 6.66p per share, up a tenth on the same time last year.
Liberum Capital said it had cut its January 2015 pre-tax profit forecast by 45% and reduced its recommendation to 'hold' from 'buy' with a reduced price target of 400p.
Shares fell 32.5p or 8.1% to 370p at 11:39 in London.