Rubicon Software Share Discussion Threads

[wisteria2] 23/2/2012 08:55

Perky this am! few shares changing hands......gla

[tomboyb] 23/2/2012 08:15

Morning chaps - very exciting -




February 22, 2012 7:55 pm
Sir Stelios plans west African venture
By Arash Massoudi
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is planning to launch his new airline venture in west Africa in the coming months with up to 15 jets in what may eventually become an African version of EasyJet, the UK low-cost carrier he founded.
Sir Stelios is poised to report the results of a feasibility study run by his EasyGroup management team for Rubicon, a cash shell which raised £9m in a December placing to fund the launch of the airline, to be called Fastjet.
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The study is expected to recommend that Fastjet link about six west African countries to Accra, the Ghanaian capital. Two people familiar with the study said that up to 15 aircraft could be leased initially. If successful, Fastjet will eventually expand across Africa, they added, to become the first pan-African low-cost carrier.
"There's a very serious plan to make Rubicon into a very serious low-cost carrier," said David Lenigas, a Rubicon board member and chairman of Lonrho, the pan-African conglomerate.
"One of the attractions is that west Africa is very poorly served other than with national carriers that don't have the proper models to do regional low-cost service," said Geoffrey White, Lonrho chief executive and also a Rubicon board member. "The initial assumption could look to have 5m passengers a year passing through Ghana."
Lonrho owns a 12.7 per cent stake in Rubicon and also runs Fly540, a low-cost airline that operates regionally in east Africa and domestically in Ghana and Angola.
"There's probably going to be an association with Fly540 in Ghana and it will make the whole thing bigger and a whole lot better," said Mr Lenigas.
Rob Burnham, chairman of Rubicon, said there was space for collaboration with Fly540 but cautioned against suggestions of a reverse takeover on grounds that the airline did not have a jet fleet. "That doesn't fit with our long-term plans, but Fly540 does operate in Ghana and it does have some infrastructure that could be of use for us in launching this."
On speculation that Fastjet could rapidly expand throughout the whole of Africa, Sir Stelios tried to damp down expectations. "The concept works best on short flights of about one to two hours," he told the Financial Times. "This company has to learn how to walk before it can run."
Sir Stelios said that he has not yet decided whether he will invest directly in Rubicon. Earlier reports suggested that Sir Stelios was planning on making a $500m investment in Fastjet.
In December, Rubicon received exclusive branding rights for Fastjet from EasyGroup for 12 months in exchange for a payment of £480,000, a 5 per cent stake in the company and further royalty fees.
A day ahead of a much anticipated showdown over bonus pay with EasyJet executives, Sir Stelios said that Fastjet would not violate the terms of his non-compete agreements with EasyJet. "Even if it is still in force, it has a very narrow restriction in time and geography," he added.

[yashdi] 22/2/2012 22:15

Another Article released today.

[christianf12] 22/2/2012 15:00

There is a seller here. How many can you sell currently at 3.35p?

Think we will see 3p in coming days.

[yashdi] 22/2/2012 14:55

Stelios to Invest $500 Million in Low-Cost West Africa Airline
By Ekow Dontoh - Feb 22, 2012 12:33 PM GMT .LinkedIn Google +1 Print QUEUEQ..Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of discount carrier EasyJet Plc, plans to invest $500 million in a low-cost African airline with Ghana's capital, Accra, as its regional hub.

"We could link Ghana to 10 or 15 different countries in West Africa," said Ed Winter, former chief operating officer of EasyJet and a member of the management team of Stelios, who goes by his first name. They are in Ghana to conduct studies into starting the airline, he said in an interview in Accra Feb. 20. "We are looking at 15 aircraft with an investment value of $500 million."

Ghana's economy, the second-biggest in West Africa at $31 billion, has attracted interest from airlines since the 2007 discovery of oil for export at the Jubilee field. United Airlines and Turkish Airlines began flights in 2010, while TAP of Portugal started flying last year.

The low-cost airline, called Fastjet, would carry 5 million passengers each year in the region, White said in an e-mailed response to questions.

West Africa is "so underserved" by airlines, said Geoffrey White, chief executive officer of Lonrho Plc (LONR), in an interview in Accra Feb. 20. Lonrho operates Fly540, a low-cost airline that operates in East Africa and runs domestic flights in Ghana and Angola. It is looking to "potentially partner Stelios" in its African operations, White said.

High aviation taxes are barriers to operating in West Africa, said Winter. "We could start with five aircrafts in the first year and add the 10 aircraft well within two years, but that relies very much on bringing tax levels in West Africa down to the same levels we see in Europe and Asia," he said.

Winter and other officials with Stelios's group plan to meet with officials of Ghana's aviation, transport and trade ministries to discuss the need to lower tariffs, he said.

Article link

[christianf12] 09/2/2012 09:47

Selling below bid price again.

[christianf12] 08/2/2012 08:04

Selling at 3.25p yesterday, under the bid price, how low will this go? 2.5p?

[tomboyb] 02/2/2012 09:00

Yep - looks like it almost at cash value here - although i won't forget the depreciation - no value given to stelios involvement YET -

[christianf12] 02/2/2012 08:30

Big seller in the market at present as you can buy at 3.52p. Must be a placee wanting rid.

[tomboyb] 31/1/2012 22:24

Needs a bit of news old rubi - cash of 9mill or 3p per share - raised at 4p with the prospect of fastjet or the rto of fly540 coupled as fastjet -

[tomboyb] 17/1/2012 09:06

Thanks for that - it seems there is movement here - literally in that space -

[boonboon] 17/1/2012 07:59

Lonrho and Stelios take over Fly 540

Image via flight-africa.com



By Dr. Wolfgang H. Thome, eTN Uganda | Jan 16, 2012
(eTN) - It was learned over the weekend that a new ownership has emerged at Fly 540 aviation, when Lonrho, with their new partners Sir Stelios, compelled the other existing shareholders to sell – in the face of whatever evidence they were confronted with – taking full control of East Africa's first LCC.

Previous Co-CEO Don Smith predictably had to leave Fly 540, and it is understood that no tears were shed by anyone over this, while Neill Steffen, the other Co-CEO and previously more engaged in other Fly 540 operations in other parts of Africa, will return full time to Nairobi to take charge of the airline.

Only a week ago was news broken here of these developments being imminent, bringing forth the wrath of those exposed a shade too early for their own clandestine taste, but with this latest confirmation now at hand, it is once again clear that the story broken then was entirely correct and that the anger of those now departed has departed with it.

It was confirmed that Don Smith will be moving over to East African Safari Air Express, a company ostensibly taken over by Fly 540, in retrospect, not the case, as it was taken over by one individual. EASAX is now awaiting a Kenya Civil Aviation Authority licensing hearing to learn about the fate of their application for an air service license, something which will probably meet with objections from other airlines but that will be another story to be told right here when the time comes.

Another piece of information which emerged from the weekend information flow was that what was thought to have been Fly 540's own maintenance facility at Wilson Airport was apparently also owned by the now former CEO Don Smith, which if correct, would be a clear sign of longer term intent, to be ready when the day would inevitably come that the other shareholders, those with the money that is, could no longer to be duped and would come knocking at the door with strong men in attendance, figuratively speaking, of course. Whether, as has been rumored, that MRO has charged Fly 540 over the top for maintenance, cannot be confirmed, but a forensic audit could possibly shed some light on this piece of the equation, should the new bosses at Fly 540 wish to pursue the matter further.

The new owners seem set to roll out an ambitious fleet development program to turn their vision finally into reality, no longer held back by internal elements with their own hidden agenda, and will in coming months, turn into what is expected to be a purely jet airline, operating regional flights and the city pairs to Kisumu, Malindi, and Mombasa.

[tomboyb] 16/1/2012 10:39

A small if not relevent stat on Fly540 -



A month ago fly540 had an alexa rank of 800ish in Kenya but none in Tanzania - Its ranked 243 in Tanzania in 1 month - That is however dependent on the accessability of internet in that region -

[tomboyb] 15/1/2012 18:25

Yep - EK has bought in below placing price - the premium given to the involvement of stelios in relation to the placing price is minimal! And certainly in that sense in agreement with EK -

[someuwin] 15/1/2012 18:21

EK has bought into RUBI as of Friday...

"Rubicon (RUBI), shortly to be FastJet, is marooned at a smidgin below the placing price of 4p. That seems an error to me given that there is now less than £2m of goodwill in the valuation and all of Africa for Sir Stelios to sell to."

[tomboyb] 15/1/2012 18:15

No better authority than Stelios et al - hence High risk and high reward - the African Aviation sector is very immature market although gaining momentum in terms of competitiveness -



It may well also be the case that FLY540 management may well be changing - Rubi is supported by the placing - the perhaps new management team of Stelios and of course Lonrho -

[tenapen] 15/1/2012 16:27

But loads of Red Tape.

I hope you can cut it and i also hope Lonrho spin out Fly540 as it is just a drain on cash.

I hold Lonrho.

[tomboyb] 14/1/2012 21:13

Hi Marab - thanks i am looking to update the header further because there are a few bits missing from the jigsaw - but its a high risk high reward prospect indeed -

Stelios started Easyjet with £5mill - Rubi has £9mill although take into account the value of cash over the last 20 years - Its a venture in Africa with a very imaature avaiation market so there is room -

[marab] 14/1/2012 21:04

tomboyb - looks like another potentially great stock. II support as well so hopefully future funding will not be a great problem either.

[tomboyb] 14/1/2012 20:16

To bring the thread up-to-date -



Rubicon in Stelios venture

05/12/2011 Ben Jaglom



Artemis and Hargreaves Hale buy into start-up African airline

John Dodd and Adrian Paterson, co-managers of the Artemis Alpha Trust, along with Giles Hargreave, have piled in to the company behind FastJet

[tomboyb] 14/1/2012 19:56

The intriguing prospect here from an investor perspective is such -

If there was anyone you would look with to start an airline - With his sucess with Easyjet it would probably have to be Stelios Haji-Ioannou

The partnership is with Lonrho - Rubicon and Easygroup -

The attraction - Africa is listed as probably the last final frontier in avaiation - Its also probably true -

What makes it attractive is that Lonrho which is partnering with Rubi already has an airline in Africa:



So the question is - will it be a rebranding exercise for fly540 to fastjet.com - All in all although there is a lot of red tape in Africa - with the current partnerships its a high risk high reward prospect