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14 Aug 2008 07:00
Air Partner PLC
("Air Partner" or "the Group")
Trading Update
Air Partner, the provider of aviation services to industry, commerce, governments and private individuals worldwide, is pleased to announce that trading for the 12 months to 31 July 2008 has continued to be strong. The Group has traded particularly well in the last quarter of its financial year and this, combined with good trading conditions experienced throughout the financial year, means that Air Partner now expects to report year-end results ahead of current market expectations.
Since 2001, the Group has sought to diversify its business by geography, client and product. In the process it has significantly broadened its revenue streams, now originating from 23 offices in 15 countries across 4 continents. Air Partner's clients include many governments, thousands of corporates and hundreds of private individuals, and the Group's products include the hiring of commercial airliners, private jets, freighters and a full range of ancillary services around these core activities. This diversity has helped to support the Group's stated strategy to reduce the impact of economic fluctuations on its profitability. Consequently the board expects sales for the 12 months to 31 July 2008 to be approximately 30% up on the prior year, and profit before tax to be some 20% ahead of the comparable period.
This expected increase in sales and profitably has been predominantly driven by the government, freight and HNWI sectors of the Group. In the 12 month period government sector business has performed particularly well and sales are expected to be over 50% ahead of 2007. The freight business has more than doubled year on year, and HNWI is also fast-growing. The performance of both these latter sectors reflects focused investment in them over the last three years, rather than being a comment on the overall state of each sector. In contrast to this, as indicated at the Group's interim results in March 2008, demand for corporate work has slowed, reflecting the slowing Western economies. While the diverse range of corporate clients and geographies provides some protection, the board continues to remain cautious on the outlook for the corporate business in both the short and longer term.
Looking to the longer term, management continues to have strong confidence in the business and the outlook remains good. However, while the financial year ending 31 July 2009 has started in line with expectations, booking lead times are shorter and forward orders are currently slightly softer, albeit two weeks into the financial year and during August. Nevertheless, these factors against a backdrop of corporate belt tightening and the weak sentiment surrounding the global economy, make forward predictions particularly difficult and, subsequently, a more accurate update will not be provided until the Group's results on 16 October 2008, post completion of the first quarter of 2009 trading.
The Group announces its full year results on Thursday 16 October 2008. A presentation of the results will be held at 9:30am at Temple Bar Advisory, 60 Cannon Street, London, EC4N 6NP. For information on the presentation please contact Tom Allison or Nicola Flynn on T.020 7002 1080 or email: nicolaf@templebaradvisory.com
14 August 2008
ENQUIRIES:
Temple Bar Advisory Tel: 0207 002 1080
Tom Allison Tel: 0778 999 8020
Notes to editors: please ensure "Air Partner" is written in its correct singular form, not in the plural.
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