7 September 2017 – final results
The commercial passenger aircraft leasing company has announced its results for the year to 30 June and these revealed a 32% increase in lease revenue to $94.2m with pre-tax profit rising by 18% to $21.4m. Earnings per share emerged at 36.3 US cents or about 27.7p assuming an exchange rate of £1/$1.31. These are record results for the company which continues to expand. The group now has 35 aircraft in its fleet and this number is expected to grow this year with a number of aircraft under consideration for acquisition. The group’s aircraft assets are valued at $744m and at the year end net debt was $561m. This high level of borrowing is to be expected in a company of this type though and net assets per share were $3.21 or around 245p. The dividend was raised by 85% to 6.00 US cents putting the shares on a dividend yield of around 1.9%. Although medium term prospects remain encouraging we believe there are better investment opportunities elsewhere and suggest readers TAKE PROFITS.