Revenues rise and losses shorten as Esken winding-down process continues
Esken, the Carlisle-based former Stobart Group, reported higher annual revenues and lower pre-tax losses as it continues to wind-down the business.
Revenues for the year to February 28, 2023, were £120m, up from £104.6m, while a pre-tax loss of £27.7m was better than the £35.5m loss the previous year.
Yesterday (June 20), the group announced it had disposed of its stake in the Mersey Bioenergy biomass plant for £9m.
The aviation and renewable energy group announced in March this year that it was selling off all its core businesses following a strategic review, and returning funds to shareholders.
It said today that the sale of Esken Renewables is progressing well and is now at an advanced stage working with a preferred bidder on an exclusive basis.
Esken has started the process for the sale of London Southend Airport (LSA), its key strategic airport asset within the aviation business, and in November 2022, Esken secured a new borrowing facility comprising £50m of committed funding.
Since the year end, Esken has completed the sale of Star Handling Limited, at Manchester and Stansted airports, for up to £4.8m in May 2023.
As at February 28, 2023, the group’s headroom was £50.3m, in line with management expectations.
David Shearer, executive chairman of Esken said: “Over the last financial year, we secured a successful debt fund raising in difficult market conditions, completed a strategic review of our operating businesses, and are now progressing with our plans to sell our core operating businesses and residual non-core assets through a managed disposal process with a view to returning any remaining value to Esken shareholders.
“Our Renewables business saw increased revenues, albeit at a lower margin, reflecting increased volumes of lower margin fuel supply, an increased number of unplanned outages at customer waste wood biomass plants and the impact of inflationary pressures where there is a lag before the benefit of indexation on our contracts impact.
“The division is focused on steps to improve margins going forwards, including optimising the fleet for efficiency and strong cost control.”
He added: “Our Aviation business continues to make progress as demand recovers, with LSA signing a multi-year partnership with easyJet in January 2023 – the airline will now serve five destinations from the airport.
“We installed a new, experienced senior management team and the case for the airport remains well founded as demonstrated by the increase in routes served by easyJet.”
He said: “A successful conclusion to the sale process for Renewables will allow the group to reduce its core debt significantly while providing working capital to facilitate the managed reduction of group support functions, facilitate the exit of the remaining non-core assets and support the liquidity needs of LSA through to its sale.
“There is no set timescale on the completion of the airport sale as the board wishes to ensure that the value is optimised from a shareholder perspective as aviation continues to recover. Following the completion of these steps, the remaining value will be returned to shareholders.”
