(Alliance News) - Air Partner PLC on Friday reported significantly lower annual profit as revenue fell and the firm incurred a GBP4.0 million exceptional charge.
The aviation services firm posted a GBP936,000 pretax profit for its financial year ended January 31 following a GBP3.4 million profit the year before.
Gross transaction value fell 13% to GBP236.8 million from GBP273.3 million due to a decline in Group Charter activity. This figure represents the total value invoiced to all of Air Partner's customers excluding value added tax. Consequently, revenue dropped 14% to GBP66.7 million from GBP77.5 million, hurting profit.
Underlying pretax profit was GBP4.2 million, down from GBP5.8 million, but a GBP4.0 million exceptional charge - including a GBP1.9 million impairment relating to SafeSkys Ltd - meant a significantly lower statutory pretax profit.
No final dividend was declared after a 3.85 pence per share final dividend the year before, meaning the total dividend dropped 68% to 1.8p per share from 5.6p per share.
Chief Executive Mark Briffa said: "Trading in the current financial year reflects the impact of Covid-19. Our immediate focus has been the safety of our team and other stakeholders. We have seen unusually high levels of activity in Freight and Group Charter, and a significant decline in Safety & Security and Private Jets. We are trading considerably ahead of budget for May and the forward order book is also encouraging for June, with demand for Freight and Group Charter services remaining high. However, visibility beyond this point is currently limited. Covid-19 is materially impacting economies globally, making it very hard to judge what the impact will be beyond the current emergency flying we are carrying out. As a result, we have taken prudent measures to preserve cash and maintain our working capital as we manage the business through the crisis and better understand the longer-term implications on sales.
"While there are undoubtedly challenges still to come, we have enjoyed a strong start to the current year and have the benefit of a well-diversified business."
Shares in Air Partner were down 4.2% at 68.00p in London on Friday afternoon.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
