Gama Aviation's keeps targets despite 'challenging' European market

Gama Aviation kept faith with its full-year expectations on Monday even though the business aviation services company’s first-half profits plummeted.

For the six months ended 30 June profit before tax slumped by 63% to $3.2m compared to the same period last year, while revenues over the period dropped by 3% on a constant currency basis to $104.6m.

The drop in results was driven by a poor performance in the “challenging” European market, where revenue from the firm’s ground handling division dropped by 23% to $26.7m and by 5% to $45m for the air division.

New business wins are expected for the European ground division in the second half of the year after Gama secured a new facility for the division at Bournemouth Airport, moving operations there to expand the business and deliver efficiency savings.

The AIM traded company had cash of $24.3m at 30 June, up from $22.3m at the same point last year.

Marwan Khalek, chief executive of Gama Aviation, said: "The first half of the year has been a busy period with the equity placing and refinancing completed, and progress across our operations. We continue to scale up across all geographies and service lines and develop our pipeline of value enhancing acquisitions. We remain confident in delivering our future growth plans and strategic objectives."

Strong US growth is expected to continue by the company’s board, with the hope being that steady growth in Asia and the Middle East can also help to offset the difficult conditions in Europe.

Gama Aviation’s shares were down 4.74% at 184.80p at 0931 BST.