Air Partner Share Discussion Threads

[steeplejack] 15/4/2018 18:46

There is a write up in Sat Daily Telegraph.Benign summary of recent events.Positive on balance I think.

[bouleversee] 13/4/2018 16:19

Anyone tempted to top up?

[goodpick] 13/4/2018 15:57

Castlefield have bought more ! that is a real sign of faith in the company and partly explains the shares going back up to £1 today. They must be on the inside track as a major shareholder and the CEO must have comforted them that this is a paper reporting issue - so the shares appeared cheap.

Nice to see if gradually recover. These shares seem to trade at quite low volumes and with a highish spread so not surprising that they are recovering so quickly.

Lets see if we are back up to £1.20 next week ?

[lbo] 13/4/2018 15:36

Or he no choice but has to support the share price otherwise the 12% he had already would be worth very little and would be hard to sell his position out ever. He was also showing "confidence" back in March buying shares at circa £1.40 before the share price fell on the back of the accounting problems. He bought about 2% in March so would be down 30% on those purchases alone. For every buyer there is usually a seller so we can assume there must be a large seller/s also around providing the shares into the market.

[spacedust] 13/4/2018 14:12

Some hedge fund has bought shares??? Did no read that right they are now up to 13%

[dontay] 13/4/2018 14:09

Keith Ashford-Lord has certainly retained his confidence!

[lbo] 13/4/2018 11:26

Back in 2014 Mark Briffa, CEO of Air Partner said: "After a thorough search process we are very pleased to welcome Neil to the Board on a permanent basis. Neil's aviation experience, combined with years at Deloitte and working for listed companies provides him with a strong background to help add significant value to Air Partner."

[bouleversee] 13/4/2018 10:56

His leaving isn't going to put money back into the company coffers. The enquiry must be costing a lot and I'd like to know what is going to be done about trying to collect the money owed if they were genuine invoices, and paying back bonuses that were not earned.

[valhamos] 13/4/2018 10:33

But he is responsible for balance sheet substantiation. The accounts have been materially misstated on his watch and he should carry the can.

[lbo] 13/4/2018 10:26

But he only joined in 2014 and Air Partner said "the issue principally relates to the collection of receivables from customers and accounting for uncollected amounts since financial year 2010/11"

[goodpick] 13/4/2018 10:22

So Neil Morris the CFO has resigned and rightly so. This admission of responsibility demonstrates that this was financial and administrative incompetence and poor oversight and process rather than being a fraud which is being speculated in some quarters.

This is the right thing to do and quick acceptance is positive for the company. I am sure they will appoint someone solid with a good track record and experience and announcement of that to investors will be an example of one of the steps being taken to get their house in order.

Regards

[lbo] 13/4/2018 08:56

Perhaps others also knew about it considering 2011 predates when he came in? Those at the company in 2011 knew about the issues that year and they said the issue now goes back to 2011.

[ygor705] 13/4/2018 08:08

Still no news of the identity of the dodgy debtor who is still a customer who they don't want to upset. I suppose a Mafia Drug runner would be the worst result but who knows. The company is now involved with government contracts ..... not sure how all this will be going down with them after Carillion.

[valhamos] 13/4/2018 08:03

Hard to imagine that the CFO would not depart in these circumstances - it suggests a failure in balance sheet substantiation processes over many years, which presumably the PwC review has now confirmed.

[trident5] 13/4/2018 07:59

LBO
Well he had 4 years to look at what was staring him in the face.

[topvest] 13/4/2018 07:51

Yes, not a total surprise really. The big question is whether Biffa has to go as well. FD going is not an issue. Biffa on the other hand seems to have done a good job.

[trident5] 13/4/2018 07:48

CFO has gone.

[trident5] 12/4/2018 23:01

"To be fair to the auditors, how are they supposed to know whether invoices are genuine or intended to be cancelled later?"

I'm not sure that's the correct question. The Finance team and the auditors should be asking whether they are recoverable.

The single most important factor when going through a debtor book is simply to look at the age of the debts and to forensically question the old ones. It is not rocket science.

[lbo] 12/4/2018 19:48

The official RNS yesterday only said "The Air Partner finance team identified this matter as part of the year-end closing process and following the proper procedure, escalated it to the Executive team who notified the Board"The company said it would only make statements on the matter via official RNS so not sure who said the other comment to The Times?

[bouleversee] 12/4/2018 19:27

Quite right. I did read that but had forgotten, but I'm not sure it gets us any nearer to knowing whether it was a simple bookkeeping error or something more than that. We'll just have to be patient.

[robinnicolson] 12/4/2018 19:01

LBO: From The Times article:
"Air Partner says that the issue, which was found after a change of personnel in the finance department and during the preparation of annual accounts..."

[bouleversee] 12/4/2018 18:25

Thanks, LBO. All very strange.