Hangar 8 Share Discussion Threads

[goliard] 08/5/2014 08:46

Doh! I was looking at the website and he is still listed multiple times there, so I will try to blame hgr8 for my mistake! Thanks for putting me right music1 and I feel less concerned now...

[music1] 08/5/2014 08:28

Murray Law left the board in March. See the RNS, here is an extract.

31 March 2014
Hangar 8 plc ("Hangar8" or "the Company")
Board change

Hangar 8, one of Europe's largest operators of privately owned passenger jet aircraft, announces that Murray Law is to stand down as a director of the Company with immediate effect to provide him with sufficient time to pursue his international interests in New Zealand and the United States. Mr Law joined the board on the successful acquisition by Hangar 8 of International Jet Club ("IJC"), which Mr Law founded, in December 2012.

The rest of the RNS is thanks for work done and so on. No sign of a bust up.
It was to be expected that he would sell his shares in HGR8 now he is no longer involved.

[goliard] 08/5/2014 08:08

Still amazed by Murray Law's actions. No explanation for why he sold, no 'personal reasons', nothing. For an NED to sell his entire and sizeable stake without any nice words or explanation is almost unheard of. I can't see that it is anything other than a boardroom bust up and they need to get whatever it is sorted out quickly.

Hopefully we can move back up from here.

[rivaldo] 08/5/2014 08:03

Excellent news re the director buying - for a non-exec to buy £105,000 of shares is quite unusual.

Time for a substantial bounce methinks.

[geraldton1] 08/5/2014 07:46

The rest of the stock must have been placed with institutions as well...so hopefully no overhang. Good that Dustin has bought more in to show his faith in things. I would buy more if I had any spare money!

[goliard] 08/5/2014 07:25

Well there is the explanation for the drop. Murray Law sold his entire 500,000 holding. I will bet anything that this is a result of a bust up after the failed reverse takeover and I wouldn't be surprised to see him resign after this. At least we have two other directors buying some of his stake and they even managed to get them at 210p. Hopefully that is the selling over now.

[geraldton1] 07/5/2014 11:34

I agree with igoe. I'm still holding. I think it looks very cheap. Great business with recurring revenue, a dividend in prospect etc. Problem is that its just very illiquid so moves on not a lot!

[igoe104] 07/5/2014 11:05

Lack of news is making this drop, nothing has changed so good time to top up.
Looking very cheap now.

[goliard] 07/5/2014 10:16

Feeling a bit disappointed with the share price at the moment as I really thought the days of 220p would be behind us. Is everyone still holding or have some of you donned parachutes and jumped out of the Hanger8 jet? I guess we will have to wait for July's trading statement to know if this drop in price reflects the fortunes of the company or not, but I will be trying to buy some more as soon as I think we have reached the bottom of this drop... maybe 200p?

[rivaldo] 17/4/2014 12:30

Yep, rebounding nicely now. Hugely oversold imho.

[geraldton1] 16/4/2014 09:36

This does look oversold - starting to bounce now. I cant imagine anything has changed in the last month since the CEO sold some stock to go to institutions. Looking at it at this level you are able to get in at a much better price (he sold at 260p). Good niche business with decent margins and its planning on a dividend this year. 2014 estimates point to sales of £30.4m/pbt of £2.5m and EPS of 20.2p.

[igoe104] 14/4/2014 10:13

MMs will only sell any shares way above the asking price ?

im not paying at least 20p spread for 10k worth they are taking the pis*

[igoe104] 14/4/2014 10:07

Have i missed a profit warning ?

Crazy fall for a company with so much prospects.

[goliard] 14/4/2014 09:58

Pretty incredible drop without any apparent reason. Someone is taking a hit on their sales today.

[insideryou] 11/4/2014 20:15

Sure Mr Dryden will be selling a few more...lol Love the company, but not the management

[goliard] 11/4/2014 18:30

Certainly moves on low volume. Shame it's down as well as up!

[michaelwhight] 11/4/2014 12:44

Fishing for sellers today. Quite a steep fall on low vol.

[gary38] 29/3/2014 21:47

Hanger8 given a buy by The Share mag

[rivaldo] 28/3/2014 16:08

Yep, making good steady progress.

[igoe104] 24/3/2014 12:59

This is rising nicely, it wont take much news for these to completely take off.

[rivaldo] 24/3/2014 10:01

Nice start to the week - anyone got access to the full IC article?

[rivaldo] 21/3/2014 07:18

Looks like a positive article in the IC (subscriber-only unfortunately):



"Hangar8 delighted with first half

Hangar 8 (HGR8), which looks after private jets for the rich and famous, grew first-half revenue by 13 per cent to £12.5m and adjusted cash profits by almost a third to £1.2m. If ambitious boss and co-founder Dustin Dryden's approach for larger rival Air Charter Service Group had been successful, next year it would have been considerably more."

[rivaldo] 20/3/2014 10:51

Terrific new article about HGR8 - on the look-out for more acquisitions, and watch for any small revival in charter...I make no apologies for copying it in full!



"Hangar8 growing fast and still looking for acquisitions

Posted by: Alasdair Whyte March 20, 2014
in Aircraft Management, Part 135 & AOC, News

Hangar8′s decication to acquisitions and expansion into emerging markets has seen it generate over $12 million in annual profits.

The planned acquisition of Air Charter Service may have fallen through, but Hangar 8 (Lon: HGR8) is growing fast, with 2013 profits over £8 million ($12 million). Hangar8's gross profits for the last six months of 2013 were up 25 per cent as the company benefited from long-term contracts and the International Jet Club acquisition.

Organic expansion and more take-overs

Three years after listing on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investments Market, Hangar8 may look like a very different company, but Dustin Dryden, the aircraft operator's founder and CEO, believes it is just a question of scale. "What we do now is really what we always did, but now we do it on a larger scale, so it is more noticeable," says Dryden.

Like other private aircraft managers – such as TAG Aviation, ExecuJet and Gama Aviation – Hangar 8 makes money from a range of management services. This includes hiring and training pilots, supplying cabin crew and flight planning, providing maintenance and chartering-out aircraft when they are not being used by the owner.

As well as growing its aircraft management fleet organically – even its fiercest competitors admit that Dryden is extremely good at pitching prospective owners – Hangar8 has acquired three companies, most significantly International Jet Club and its nine long-range aircraft in 2012, and created new divisions focused on maintenance and air medical flights. International Jet Club's portfolio was very different to Hangar8's; only one of the aircraft is available for charter and it is predominantly used by a well-known former politician.

When Hangar8 floated in 2010, it had a fleet of 19 aircraft, consisting mostly of Hawkers and mid-size jets. Now it has 34 heavy aircraft.

Long-term charters, maintenance and air medical

The one area where Hangar8 can be forgiven for not growing is with charter. Demand for business jet charter fell significantly in 2008 and has not really recovered. Hangar8 was quick to spot this trend early and shifted its focus to long-term lease contracts with oil and natural resource companies in Africa.

Although the rates for longer-term charter are lower than hourly rates, these contracts guarantee that aircraft are profitable. In 2013, short-term charter accounted for just 9 cent of gross profits with 32 cent from longer-term contracts.

Hangar8 does not own the aircraft that are being leased. In fact, in most cases they are aircraft that banks originally financed for other owners, which were then returned to them (sometimes after being repossessed). These contracts give banks an opportunity to earn some money while they wait for demand for business jets to return. Dryden says there is the opportunity to close more of these contracts.

The company has also expanded its maintenance activities. It grew its engineering team to 22 in 2013, from 10 in 2011, and is now less reliant on other providers.

The other market where Hangar8 wants to grow is providing air medical services, particularly in Africa. Hangar8 first became interested in this market when it was looking at buying South African operator Stargate Aviation in 2011 and saw how few aircraft are available for medical repatriation.

Acquisition strategy

In 2010, Hangar8 said one of the main reasons for floating would be for acquisitions. It has now completed three take-overs, Starlite Aviation, International Jet Club and Oasis.

In February, the company announced that it was considering acquiring charter broker, Air Charter Service, but the deal fell through.

"Our door is always open to potential companies. We think there is probably a two year window of opportunity to make more acquisitions," said Dryden. "The industry is improving but there is a way to go still."

Committed to Malta

Hangar8 announced a joint venture with Maltese operator Maleth in 2011, but this ended and in 2013, it bought Oasis Flight Malta, another Maltese AOC holder. "There are real benefits of basing an operator in Malta and they were not available to us with Maleth," says Dryden. "With Oasis we get 100 per cent of these and it was too good to be missed."

Dryden also expects most new deliveries to be registered in Malta. "Malta makes sense for a corporation tax perspective but most importantly you can get firm VAT guidance for customers buying aircraft. The rules are very clear in Malta," says Dryden. "VAT rules in the UK are extremely grey and open to interruption and that is not a situation we want to put clients in. So, we are very adverse to importing aircraft into the UK."

Dryden does say that there are still benefits in much of Hangar8 being based in the UK.

Three years on

After founded the company in 2003, Dryden says that being listed gives Hangar 8 an advantage and that he does not find it particularly frustrating (it may have been a good day). It also helps that the company's share price has risen from £1.58 at launch to £2.60 in March 2014 and that it is now planning to pay a dividend. Dryden still owns 42 per cent of the company.

Corporate Jet Investor's view: Don't forget about charter

Because it is listed, Hangar8 gives us rare insight into the state of aircraft management companies. Although its results are positive, this is still a tough business. The European business jet fleet is growing, but not as fast as it was before 2008.

In the past, aircraft operators tended to make most of their profits from charter, but this market is still depressed. Hangar8 has switched much of its business to management (particularly through buying International Jet Club) and longer-term leases. It deserves credit for spotting the long-term lease opportunities and retaining these contracts in tough African operating environments.

But it still has aircraft available to benefit from a pick-up in charter demand. If this happens (although it is unlikely to do so before 2015 at the earliest), the company's profits could rise very fast, particularly as the costs of servicing charter are very low. An extra hour of charter per aircraft per month would make a big difference to Hangar8's profits."