Esken sells airports handling business in deal worth £4.8m

Esken, the Carlisle-based former Stobart Group, has completed the sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Star Handling, for £4.8m.

The aviation and renewables group put up the ‘for sale’ sign up following its strategic review in March this year.

It said it believes it is in the best interests of all stakeholders to secure the long term potential of its businesses and deliver value for Esken shareholders through a managed disposal process.

Esken has closed the deal for Star Handling with Skytanking UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Prime Flight Aviation Services, Inc, on a debt free cash free basis.

Under the terms of the agreement, Esken has received £3.46m in cash, with up to a further £0.38m being payable following agreement of completion accounts.

An additional payment of up to £0.96m – being 20% of the maximum consideration – is deferred and will be payable subject to the business achieving forecast customer revenue targets in the 12 months following completion. The cash consideration will be used toward debt repayment.

Star Handling carries out ground handling operations at London Stansted Airport and Manchester Airport.

The sale of these operations is part of Esken’s wider strategy to explore a sale of its aviation businesses, as announced in the group’s trading statement on March 2, 2023. Esken’s remaining ground handling operations post-disposal will maintain the in-house passenger handling services at London Southend Airport.

The buyer intends to operate the services at Stansted and Manchester under a new brand name.

As at February 28, 2022, Star Handling Limited had gross assets of £5.7m and net liabilities of £5.4m. The loss before tax for the year ended February 28, 2022, was £0.8m.

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