Manston sold for one pound

Infratil, the Wellington-based infrastructure investor, has agreed to sell Manston Airport in the UK for 350,000 British pounds to Stagecoach Group co-founder Ann Gloag and her brother Brian Souter.

Ann Gloag

Infratil agreed to sell the airport for 1 pound plus adjustment for working capital variances and cash injected by Infratil, the company said in a statement.

The latest sale comes after Infratil last week said it was in talks to sell its Glasgow Prestwick Airport to the Scottish government, allowing the infrastructure investor to exit the unprofitable overseas airports it earmarked for sale in March last year. Infratil expects to write down the value of the assets in its books by about 11 million pounds to zero in its earnings for the six months to September 30, the company said today.

Infratil chief executive Marko Bogoievski said in the statement:

"From Infratil's perspective, while Manston was a very small part of the company's overall asset base, this sale will result in a more focused portfolio and improve our future cash flow position,"

The announcement comes a day after news that David Newman, a director of Infratil for almost two decades and chairman for the past nine years, had died in Wellington.

Shares in Infratil last traded at $2.535, having gained 12 per cent this year. The stock is rated a 'buy' according to the consensus of analysts polled by Reuters.

NZ Herald 14th Oct 2013

---

---

Infratil Limited has agreed to sell Manston Airport to Lothian Shelf (710) Limited, an entity wholly owned by Ann Gloag, for cash consideration of £1 plus an adjustment for working capital variances and cash injected by Infratil between 14 October 2013 and transaction completion (which is expected to be around GBP350,000).

Ann Gloag is an experienced investor who co-founded Stagecoach Group, the UK-listed public transport operator, along with her brother, Brian Souter.

Marko Bogoievski, Chief Executive of Infratil said:

"Infratil Limited is very pleased to have found an acquiror with a vision for Manston Airport's future development. From Infratil's perspective, while Manston was a very small part of the company's overall asset base, this sale will result in a more focused portfolio and improve our future cash flow position"

Ann Gloag said: 

"I am delighted to have purchased Manston Airport from Infratil as I believe there is real potential for growth that has not been fully captured. Having worked in the transport industry for over 30 years, I believe I am very well placed to help maximise opportunities for both freight and passengers at Manston."

Following the sale of this asset and the proposed sale of Glasgow Prestwick Airport to the Scottish Government announced last week, Infratil expects to impair these assets by approximately GBP11 million in its half year financial statements to 30 September 2013.

Completion and settlement of the Manston Airport sale will occur on 29 November 2013 (or earlier, at the purchaser's request), and is only conditional on matters within Infratil's control.

Kevin Baker
Chief Financial Officer

4-traders.com  14th Oct 2013

KIACC meeting at Manston

KENT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE MEETING IN PUBLIC

Friday 27th September 2013 6.30pm in the Airport Departure Lounge

AGENDA

1.       Chairman's welcome & opening

2.       Minutes of last meeting

3.       Matters Arising

4.       Short introduction to the public part of the Meeting by P Twyman, Chair of KIACC

5.       Short presentations from Community Fund recipients

6.       Report from the Airport Management  (Charles Buchanan, CEO Manston Airport)

7.       Thanet District Council (Cllr Hart, Leader of the Council has been invited to speak)

8.     Questions from the public and discussion

---

Members of the public are invited to attend this meeting and will have the opportunity to ask questions after the business of the Committee has been dealt with.

Hear from Thanet District Council and the CEO of the Airport.  Hear about the work of KIACC.  Make your views known.

Agendas will be available at the meeting.

The Constitution of KIACC provides for one meeting a year at which the public can attend.  In recent years, in keeping with our wish to provide a public forum for discussion on airport issues, the Chairman has extended this provision so that the public can not only attend but have the opportunity to speak.  So far nobody has objected to this commonsense approach!

After the formal business of the meeting there will be ample opportunity for members of the public to ask questions and make suggestions (but not, please, long speeches).  It would be helpful in making best use of  time if people with specific questions could let us have them in advance so that they can be grouped together - suggestions to secretary.manstonkiacc@talktalk.net.   And if they are not reached they can be passed on to the appropriate quarter for a response.

We look forward to seeing you.

---

If past performance is anything to go by, we might expect an announcement from Charles Buchanan a few days after he is out of the public spotlight. 

Infratil STILL trying to flog a dead airport

Infratil's year-end report is out, and it seems they're having more trouble scraping Manston off the sole of their shoe than they expected:

The Infratil Airports Europe segment comprising Glasgow Prestwick and Manston Airports is presented as a disposal group held for sale following the decision of the Group to sell these businesses and the subsequent sales programme. The Group remains committed to the sale process, and it is the expectation of the Group that a sale will be completed within the next financial year.

You can download the full report HERE, but the only page that mentions Manston is reproduced below.

View fullsize

click it to big it

Infratil aims to offload loss-making UK airports

Infratil says it is still trying to sell two airports in Britain, despite passenger numbers improving. The company has been trying to sell Glasgow Prestwick and Kent International airports, which last year lost $10 million, for more than a year.

Latest figures show passenger numbers at Glasgow increased 14% in May with more than 118,000 passengers passing through, and the budget airline Ryanair plans to add more flights in July.

Infratil chief executive Tim Brown says the airports have attracted lots of potential suitors but have not yet found a buyer. Talks with several interested parties are ongoing.

Infratil shares rose 3.5 cents yesterday to close at $2.23.

Radio New Zealand 14th Jun 2013

Airports write-down lead to Infratil profits plunge

The plunging value of for-sale Prestwick airport contributed to a nose dive in its New Zealand owners’ profits, Infratil reported today.

The firm said the Ayrshire airport and its sister at Manston in Kent were now together worth £11.4 million compared to £38 million a year ago. They had been valued at £44m in 2011.

Infratil said the write-down had been the biggest element of its net profits falling from £28m to £1.8m in the year to March. The company admitted it was struggling to offload the airports. Its results statement said:

“The state of European markets has made the sale of the airports unpredictable and difficult. The two UK airports have not yet been sold and have been written down further. The decrease in value of Infratil Airports Europe [Prestwick and Manston] reflects a negative revaluation of airport assets during the year.”

Prestwick, which has been on sale since March last year, suffered the loss of Wizz Air’s two routes to Glasgow this year.

However, Ryanair - the airport’s sole remaining passenger airline - has increased its flights from there, and chief executive Michael O’Leary has said the firm had an “unbreakable commitment” to Prestwick.

Scotsman.com 15th May 2013

Council throws good money at bad airport

KCC + KLM + KIA = WTF

Getting a straight answer out of KCC is hard at the best of times - even with the legal leverage of the Freedom of Information Act it can take months. But it's usually worth the wait, and the dogged persistence is rewarded. And let's not forget, anything that's released under the FoI Act is stuff that they should have told you in the first place. By definition.

A man of Kent, showing the finest British bulldog determination and tenacity set about finding out if there are any hidden deals behind the recently announced KLM-Manston story. Eventually, he managed to prise these three sentences out of them:

I can confirm Kent County Council has not been asked for any contributions from KLM nor have we been asked to fund KLM.

We were however, asked by the owners of Manston airport if we would contribute to a marketing package to market both the route and the opportunities in Kent.

We have agreed a contribution of up to £100,000 subject to approval of a marketing plan and for the monies to be managed by Visit Kent.

Regular readers will remember that KCC and Infratil colluded in a bid to central Government which included a generous £600k sweetener for KLM - effectively "we'll pay you to use this airport". They were turned down, quite rightly.

We'll probably never know whether KLM had put pressure on them to cross their palm with silver, or whether KCC and Infratil are simply very generous (with other people's money), but it's depressingly unsurprising to find that they're at it again.

Everyone knows Infratil is selling Manston airport. More accurately, Infratil is trying to sell Manston airport - it's been on the market since March 2012, and the asking price seems to be sinking to the same level as airport-free agricultural land. Despite this, they have the balls to ask KCC for money to market and promote the highest profile route they've got (even though it isn't even running yet). KCC, unspeakable idiots that they are, agreed!

For reasons best known to KCC - but I suspect connected to EU competition regulations - they will be "laundering" the money through Visit Kent. So Kent County Council is happy to use public money to market a French/Dutch airline flying from a New Zealand-owned airport. And, yes, this is the same KCC that's cutting funding to things that people care about.

What makes KCC think this will be money well spent? And what exactly are Visit Kent going to be doing? Good questions, which we have asked on your behalf.

Airport Working Party meeting Tuesday 19th Feb

NEWSFLASH: This meeting has now been postponed. No new date has yet been set.

Oh joy of joys - another opportunity to see Thanet's finest in action (inaction?). The greybeards and hotheads will be getting together to apply their minds to the knotty problem of whether and how Manston might contribute to Thanet's glowing future.

Venue: Austen Room, Council Offices, Cecil Street, Margate, Kent. Click HERE for the Agenda etc.

The main topic of conversation promises to be a report from Rob Hetherington, TDC's Economic & Regeneration Manager (see below for an annotated version).

The Role of Manston International Airport in a New Regeneration Strategy by NoNightFlights

Game-changer - Manston to stop being an airport

Manston and Prestwick have proved hard to sell. Unsurprisingly. Infratil wants to sell them because they're failures - and that's why they're hard to sell.

Infratil has been losing millions every year, for years, and they're eager to staunch the flow. The penny seems to have dropped that these two failed airports would be easier to sell... if they weren't airports.

So Infratil is putting the word out that they're prepared to stump up cash to help potential buyers transform the airports into, er, something they actually want to buy.

Do feel free to use the comments section to pass on any helpful suggestions for Manton's future... theme park... solar farm... race track... nature reserve...

---

Infratil says it would consider investing in its two British airports to change their functions to help make them more attractive to sell.

The listed infrastructure investor's Glasgow Prestwick and Kent airports are for sale after years of under-performance. Last week, Dutch national carrier KLM confirmed it would start making twice daily flights from the Kent airport to Amsterdam from April 2013.

Infratil executive Tim Brown says the process of selling the airports has taken longer than the company expected. He says the company now has to look at a range of complex proposals and if the use of an airport is going to change, it will have ramifications for local communities.

Mr Brown says if airports are very successful then councils or cities often then tax them, but if they are struggling they may then either need subsidies or be closed and put to alternative use. He says the debate then becomes more complicated, which makes timeframes more difficult to guess. Mr Brown would neither confirm or deny whether Infratil is looking to buy Stanstead Airport in London.

Copyright © 2012, Radio New Zealand 19 November 2012