Avation PLC

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Avation half-year results investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time using the Q&A tab situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Just please simply type in your questions at any time and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it is appropriate to do so. I'd now like to hand over, if I may, to Duncan Scott, Group General Counsel. Good afternoon.

Thank you. Today, on the 3rd of March, Evasion published its unaudited financial results for the financial period ended 31st December 2021. A copy of our earnings release is available on our website at www.evasion.net. This conference call is being webcast and recorded, and the webcast will be available for replay on our website. Please note that certain statements in this conference call, including answers to your questions, are forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements regarding our future operations and performance, revenues, operating expenses, other income and expense items. These statements and any projection as to the company's future performance represent management's estimates of future results and speak only as of today, 3rd March 2022. These estimates involve could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Further information on the factors and risks that may affect Ovation's business are included in Ovation's regulatory announcements from time to time, including its annual report and half-year results announcements. Ovation assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information in light of new information or future events. Unauthorized recording of this conference call is not permitted. I will now hand you over to our Executive Chairman, Jeff Chatfield.

Thank you, Duncan, and thank you for your time today. We have the majority of the management team with us if you have any questions at the end. The financial results for the six months ended 31st of December 2021 reflect the emergence from the severe disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Revenue exceeded expectations and an evasion strategy to conserve liquidity has succeeded with net indebtedness being reduced as cash collection rates and unrestricted cash balances have improved. We expect this trend to continue throughout the second half of the financial year. The significant impairments and provisions for credit losses on receivables experienced in the previous financial year have not recurred. Some of these provisions may potentially be written back as a result of further collections of debt. Impairments recorded during the period relate to off-lease aircraft, including six ex-virgin Australian ATR-72 aircraft, three of which are now subject to a sale agreement with Aegean Airlines. The fleet is returning to high levels of utilization as unused aircraft continue to be repositioned or sold. This significantly impacts the significant impacts of airline insolvencies or restructuring of some of Avation's customers have been reflected in prior period. Ovation is engaged in a review of alternatives to de-level its balance sheet and lower the cost of debt, which has increased as a result of the agreement to extend the maturity date of Ovation Capital's senior notes to 31 October 2026. The company is seeing an increasing number of positive data points in the aircraft leasing sector. We've seen increasing interest from airlines to buy or lease aircraft at sustainable lease rates, more senior lenders willing to lend against aircraft assets, aircraft orders from airlines and improved utilization of aircraft. These factors all support the emergence of the industry from the pandemic. The company will growth through the opportunistic aircraft trading and deliveries from its order book in the post-pandemic environment. Avation has no direct exposure to Russia or any Russian airline. This presentation is set out in three sections. The first provides an overview of the company. The second provides a summary of the results for the financial year, half year, before taking the pathway forward and then opening up the meeting for Q&A. So we now have a snapshot of evasion as of 31st December, 2021. The past two years since the declaration of the pandemic have been the most challenging in the company's history. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted our cashflow, our airline customers and evaluation of our assets. As at 31st of December, the company had 42 aircraft in the fleet, serving 16 different customers in 13 countries. Although with the recent announcement that we completed the transfer of title on the first three ATRs we are selling to Aegean, this means we have 41 aircraft as of today. Aviation owns, manages or leases regional, narrow-body and twin-aisle aircraft. fleet is split between 17% wide body, 50% narrow body and 33% turboprop by value respectively. The aircraft fleet has a 5.3 year weighted average age and a 6.1 year weighted average remaining lease term. Today, fleet assets total in excess of $1 billion. Attached to that fleet is 575 million in unearned contracted revenue from existing operating leases and a further 64 million in finance lease receivables. That's over $639 million in income on the remaining leases at this point. On average, the fleet is still less than halfway through its expected life. retained a full complement of commercial, legal, financial and technical personnel to ensure it has the skillset needed to manage the platform successfully and return to growth in the post COVID-19 recovery phase. The company intends to return to adding new aircraft in the fleet from its order book Avation's diversified fleet at 31st December is focused on fuel-efficient regional and narrow-body aircraft. These sectors are seeing the fastest return to service as we emerge from the pandemic. 83% of Avation's fleet is focused on regional domestic travel, which towards the end of 2021 was close to returning to 2019 pre-COVID utilisation levels. Avation believes that new aircraft carry a lower risk of service debt through long-term leases. In the last year, Avation rescheduled the ATR order book to reduce committed capital expenditure. Avation now holds all firm orders for two aircraft and purchase rights for 28 ATR 72600 aircraft. These represent a valuable asset as the purchase rights provide a visible pathway to fleet growth. These first two ATR aircraft represent only a small proportion of the equipment commitment for each aircraft, given we paid significant pre-delivery payments for each aircraft. We expect to be able to finance most of the remaining acquisition costs with debt. Our previous largest customer, Virgin Australia, entered into insolvency at the start of the pandemic, resulting in 13 aircraft being returned to us. We've since placed four and sold six of these aircraft, leaving only three unutilised ex-Virgin aircraft in the fleet. Aviation is returning to a high level of operational efficiency, which simply means that a high percentage of the fleet is generating rent. There is a strong interest in the remaining aircraft and our expectation is that we will sell or lease these aircraft in the short term, with further positive news expected shortly. Airline customers. The next slide shows airline customers. Today we have 16 customers in 13 countries. Avations customers include flag carriers. While flag carriers are not excluded from the impacts of COVID-19 and associated travel restrictions, these airlines are more likely to receive government support due to the national importance of the carrier. These airlines also typically service domestic routes as countries have moved beyond the peak of the pandemic in terms of domestic travel, which has recovered faster than international air travel. It is important to note that Avation's geographical spread of customers has the pandemic impact in different areas at different times. Around two-thirds of Avation's companies are by revenue alone located in Asia, including airlines based in countries that experience a less severe impact in the first year of the virus. We've also been in fortune in Europe, where our largest injection. We've been able to retain the majority of our customers, fleet, team, and for this reason, we believe Vivation's business model is largely intact. We've included the list of customers and their aircraft to provide further granular detail on the fleet. The ATR market is recovering with interest in buying and leasing aircraft increasing. Together with the three ex-Virgin aircraft, we are also remarketing two ex-Logan aircraft. It's likely that we'll sell at least half of these mid-life ATRs, which will free up further cash and enable Ovation to recycle equity and or de-lever the balance sheet. We've also received interest in the ex-Garuda aircraft. The company has announced the sale of three ATR-72-600 aircraft to Aegean Airlines, which will be completed prior to the end of the financial year, which is 30 June 2022. Aviation is currently not aware of any sanctions in respect to the current situation in the Ukraine, which would have an impact on the company. Aviation has no direct exposure to Russia or any Russian airline. Aviation has a focus on Yarnley aircraft and therefore a natural seller of midlife aircraft. Let me now hand the call to Richard Holansky, who will provide more detail on the financial results, liquidity and key ratios.

Thanks, Geoff. The next few slides of the presentation provide a summary of the financial results. Further details included in today's stock exchange announcement, which is also available on the company's website. During the period, Evasion generated a total income of $60.1 million, which, while down 5% year-on-year, did exceed the company's expectation. Revenue was $57.9 million, which was down 6%. Operating profit totaled $18.8 million, which is a big turnaround from the $34 million loss in the first half of 2021. This resulted in a total loss after tax of $15.2 million. a sharp drop from the loss of $61.2 million in the corresponding period last year. The amortisation of non-cash gains on the debt modification recognised in the financial year 2021 results from the extension of the duration of the unsecured bonds that was classified under IFRS 9 as debt modification, and that amortisation impacted the P&L by $3.6 million in the period. You'll also see a loss on disposal of aircraft of $2 million in the P&L. This was offset by credit to equity in the balance sheet by a release of asset revaluation reserves. Thirdly, there was a $1 million non-cash warrants expense in the P&L that is matched by a $1 million credit to equity via the warrants reserve. These three non-cash items represent approximately half of the reported loss for the period. Finally, as mentioned in the results R&S released to the London Stock Exchange this morning, the $9.9 million impairment to the fleet was offset in the P&L by a right back of maintenance reserves and end of lease compensation totalling $8.7 million. The impairment related only to unleased aircraft, which we are continuing to successfully reposition or sell. To put these results into context, the disruption caused by the pandemic last year resulted in over $87 million in impairments to the value of the fleet and over $25 million for expected credit loss recognised in the previous financial year to 30 June 2021. These significant impairment and credit losses have not recurred in the first half of 2022. As Jeff mentioned at the beginning of the presentation, collection of debts may reverse some of those provisions for credit losses moving forward. Fleet assets declined by 7% to $1 billion due to normal depreciation of the disposal of two aircraft. The weighted average cost of total debt remained steady at 5.4%. The loss of 22 US cents per share for the period And the NAV per share remained the same at £1.64 as the P&L losses recorded for the period were offset by gains in equity in the balance sheet and exchange rate movements. Just having a look at the operational highlights, we sold one Airbus A220 in October, followed by the sale of a relatively old Airbus A321 in November. We also reached that agreement to sell three ex-Virgin ATR aircraft to Aegean, the first of which has been delivered in January, with the next two to be delivered likely to be in March and April. We extended leases on a couple of ATR 600 aircraft with heavy lift, and we actually signed and delivered a third aircraft to heavy lift during the period. The Philippine Airlines restructuring was finalised with the airline importantly retaining that Boeing 777-300ER. In terms of aircraft transactions, we got the Boeing 737-800 returned from Garuda and we've commenced remarketing on that aircraft. The two ATR 72600 aircraft were returned from Loganair and are being remarketed now for sale or lease. An Airbus A320 was also returned to us and transitioned. On this slide, we've provided some information of Asian's debt position. Net indebtedness, importantly, has declined by almost $72 million since 30 June 2021, and by around $180 million in the past 18 months since 30 June 2020. This trend will continue throughout the remainder of the financial year. There was an increase in the weighted average cost of the group's secure debt facilities to 4%, which was up from 3.9% as a result of repayment of some lower cost debt. But this had the beneficial impact of increasing the number of unencumbered aircraft in the fleet. The weighted average cost of debt for the company remained steady at 5.4%, and at the end of the year, 89% of total debt was at fixed or hedged interest rates. Ivation's net debt to assets ratio improved to 70.5% since 30 June, when it was 71.9%. And the chart on the page shows the evolution of the group's cost of debt over the past eight and a half years. We've provided a range of key ratios on a comparative basis. The net asset value per share remains steady at £64. Lease yields have improved to 10.3%. Administrative expenses on a cash basis, excluding the warrant expense, increased to 10.1%, partly because of the lower revenue base, but also because expenses have increased primarily driven by higher legal fees in dealing with some of the issues arising from the pandemic. The company also put a very tight squeeze on expenses last year during the height of the pandemic. The debt to equity ratio has reduced to 5.7 times from 6, and the net debt over EBITDA saw an improvement to 8.7 times versus 12.5 times as of 30 June 2021. Debt to total assets also improved to 73.1% from 73.9%, and EBITDA as a function of interest expense improved slightly. Onto slide 11, which provides a look at our liquidity. Ovation identified liquidity as our key focus during the pandemic. Total cash has been preserved over the past couple of years, and we have now managed to build the unrestricted cash balance by 25% since 30 June to over $35 million. The company has also grown the number of unincumbered aircraft since 30 June from three to five aircraft as at 31 December. The bonds, the unsecured bonds, which now have an additional interest component on top of the original 6.5% coupon of either 2.5% pick or 1.75% cash, now have a maturity of 31 October 2026 and are callable at any time. Cash collections are returning to normal with 91% cash collection rate for the year to date to 31 December, a significant improvement over the prior financial year. And we also note that the December monthly cash collection rate was 171%, which confirms that we are recovering arrears that have arisen as a result of the pandemic. Liquidity is expected to continue to improve over the next four to five months. Having sold two aircraft prior to 31 December and the first of the Aegean ATRs in January, we expect to complete the sale on those remaining two ex-virgin ATRs to Aegean over the next couple of months. These five aircraft sales released $42 million into working capital, net of debt, that can then be used to deliver and or fund future growth. We are expecting a number of positive cash flows over and above normal cash flow from operations in the next few months as well before the end of the financial year. These include, in the coming months, additional aircraft sales to those mentioned, which are likely to include some of the ATRs we are marketing, collections from customers, and from the insolvency proceedings of Virgin Australia and Philippine Airlines, in addition to the normal cash flow from operations. In respect of the payout from Virgin, we have flagged to investors that Avation's claim against Virgin Australia has been adjudicated by the trustee of the creditors' trust in the sum of 101.4 million Australian dollars. The administrator advised in December 2020 of an expected payout of 9.5 cents in the dollar for unsecured claims. In November 2021, however, the trustee of the creditors' trust advised that unsecured claims in respect of Virgin Australia had increased from initial estimates provided by the administrator by 1.7 billion Australian dollars to a total of 5.8 billion Australian dollars. Avation expects that these increases in claims will reduce the payout to creditors from the estimate originally provided by the administrator. The company is participating in litigation, arguing that 45% of its $101 million claim should take priority over unsecured claims. A decision is expected in the coming months. If successful, this claim would increase the payout from Virgin by an order of magnitude. In respect of PALS restructuring completion, Ovation has already received payments for power by the hour rent for the period from September 2020 to September 2021, and a promissory note for 25% of the pre-September 2020 rent arrears. There will also be some equity granted to us, although we have not attributed any value to this component. As part of the restructuring, PAL had been paying power by the hour on a monthly basis in September 2021, and this will continue until this month, March 2022. And as of this month, the lease reverts to a fixed monthly rate. Since PAL commenced the restructuring in September 21, the plane has been generating significant revenue, which we have been collecting. Monthly rates collected on a power by the hour basis since September 21 2021 were within 5% of the fixed rate rent that the plane reverts to this month. Aviation has already stated publicly that in addition to a cautious approach to aircraft acquisitions, Avation will consider applying surplus cash that is being generated in the coming period to deliver the balance sheet with a specific focus on outstanding senior unsecured notes due October 2026. Avation is reviewing a variety of alternatives to lower or eliminate the amount of unsecured bonds outstanding. Any repurchase of notes improves future profitability, lowers the average cost of debt, lowers future cash interest payments and supports the long-term goal of refinancing the notes. Ovation is unable to provide further guidance at this point in time as to the details of actions to lower the impact of the unsecured bonds or the value of any potential repurchases or the split between applying excess cash between fleet growth and deleveraging the balance sheet. Avation will consider the market conditions at the relevant time. On this slide, we show the loan maturities over the coming years. Secured debt loan maturities in red match the underlying lease terms of the aircraft. The grey maturity represents a warehouse facility which currently houses nine aircraft. We're exploring refinancing some of the aircraft in this facility that are on long-term leases with matching duration senior debt and or extending the warehouse. Loan maturities are typically aligned with lease terms and with a long average lease duration of six years, most of Ovation's senior debt, which makes up about two thirds of our total debt, has significant duration. Ovation confirms that it is current with all payments to secured lenders. Ovation either complies with or has received waivers with all senior bank loan covenants. Ovation is also in discussions with senior lenders to permanently amend or remove some of the covenants that no longer reflect the capital structure in a post-COVID environment. I'll now hand the slides back to Jeff for an update on the company's COVID-19 strategy and a pathway moving forward.

Thank you, Richard. Avation instituted a program of support for its airline customers by agreeing to defer a payment of a proportion of their rent in the short term. The cash flow impact of the support program was mitigated by adjusting the amortization profiles of related financing with the agreement of lenders. The successful implementation material lower indebtedness and begin to build the level of unrestricted cash on the balance sheet as historic rents and payout from insolvency proceedings related to customer airlines are collected. Our support involved in allowing a permanent proportion of the rent. This is not a rent decrease or a holiday. Airlines need to and indeed have begun to repay the deferred rent. The balance of this reduction in cash Innovation implemented three key strategies to preserve cash flow. The first was to adjust the amortisation of senior loans associated with fleet and key lending banks. The second was an immediate reduction in cash expenses throughout 2020 and 2021. The third step has been to reduce capital outgoings. This included a moratorium on capital expenditure that had seen no new deliveries of aircraft into the fleet and a temporary suspension of dividends. In terms of the outcome, support agreements were with 14 of 19 customers. Rent deferred by airlines totals $25.9 million. Banks agreed to reschedule $35.2 million of loan amortization, and we extended the maturity of the unsecured bonds to October 2026. but clearly there is a pathway where we are positioned for recovery and growth. The disruption created by the COVID-19 pandemic is beginning to recede following the successful rollout of global vaccination programs that support a return to increased levels of air travel. This trend is already evidenced in regional and domestic travel, and we expect that this will be followed by recovery in international travel as we move towards the remainder of 2022. Omicron appears to have only had a short-term impact on the rebound. The situation in Ukraine hasn't yet had any significant impact on our customers, but this is a fast-moving and evolving situation. Unlike most other lessors, Ovation exposed to any financing in Russia. The fundamentals of the business and the business models remain intact. The recent completion of the restructuring by Philippine Airlines resolves one of the last remaining lease defaults resulting from the pandemic in Evasion's fleet. Evasion is set to emerge from the pandemic with a smaller fleet with higher levels of utilization and a long time for repayment of the company's unsecured notes following the extension of their maturity to 2026. Cashflow from operations continues to improve, so return to normal trading conditions as countries open air travel to vaccinated travelers. Avation's largest five customers, which make up almost 70% of monthly revenue, were current or in compliance with repayment plans as at 31 December. Cash inflows for the remainder of the financial year will be boosted through the settlement of unannounced aircraft sales and expected further sales of unutilised aircraft, collections from insolvency proceedings related to Virgin Australia and Philippine Airlines and from collections of outstanding amounts related to rent deferral arrangements and the increase of receivables as a result of COVID-19. been evidenced in our improved cash collection rates for the period ended 31st December 2021 and an increase in unrestricted cash balances. With the worst of the pandemic appearing to be behind us, Avation is now looking to right-size the fleet and adjust the capital structure for the long term. to create a long-term profitable cash flow positive business that can once again grow. We're looking at alternatives to reduce the impact of the higher coupon created as a result of the extension of the duration of the unsecured bonds as having a profitability and cash flow. There are likely to be opportunities to buy aircraft from airlines and lessors looking to adjust or reduce their portfolio, which aviation is positioning itself to take advantage of. about the long-term opportunity for airline travel, particularly in the turboprop and narrow-body sectors. We as a management team continue to support, believe in, and align with the company and its investors. I'll now proceed with the Q&A session. So everyone is welcome to ask a question.

That's great, Jeff. Thank you very much indeed. Let me just go in and give some investors some instructions. That's very kind of you and Richard for your presentation this afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q&A tab situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. But just while the company take a few moments to review those questions submitted already, I'd like to remind you that recording this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published Q&A can be accessed via your InvestorMeet company dashboard. Jeff, as you can see, there's been a number of questions submitted by investors on today's call. So thank you, firstly, to everybody that submitted questions. Perhaps, Jeff, if I may, hand back to you to read out the questions and give a response where it's appropriate to do so.

Thank you very much. So I think we'll take them in order. The first one's from Damien. He asks, can you please summarise the different this to Ian Court, who's the Chief Financial Officer of the company. So Ian, you can turn your microphone on.

Hi Damien. So the restructuring of PAL completed on the 31st of December and as a result of that we received back rent payments on a power by the hour basis for the period between Powell entering administration in September 2020 and the end of the power by the hour period in September 2021. We also received a promise rate for which represented 25% of the rent arrears outstanding at the date that Powell entered administration. And we subsequently received a number of shares in Philippine Airlines, which we believe are intended to be listed on the stock exchange.

Very good. The next one is from Phil. How did the company reduce debt in the first half of 22, repurchase bonds in the secondary market? If so, what price? I'll direct this to Ian again.

Yes, so you'll have seen in the announcement that we sold a couple of aircraft. One of those aircraft was financed, so that was a big chunk of the loan repayments. We also refinanced a portfolio of older ATR aircraft and at the same time reduced the outstanding loan by about $5 million. And then, of course, we have our normal amortization in a tend to see debt reduced just due to the normal course of business.

Thank you. The next one's from Ganesh. Could the company advise if it still has aircraft at least in Myanmar? I think we'll direct this one to Rod. Do you want to answer this one, Rod?

Yes, hello. Yeah, we have one ATR-72 with Golden Myanmar We've reached a consensus with the airline that the political problems are not going to be resolved quickly in Myanmar and they will return the aircraft consensually. So we're in the process of doing that right now. And at the same time, we remarketed the aircraft and we've already actually signed an LOI with another airline to take delivery of that aircraft. So that's good development. That's happened since the end of last year, the last couple of months.

Thank you for that, Rod. So what he said is we're transitioning the aircraft to another airline and we've signed the LOI for that. We don't normally like to announce LOIs until we actually deliver the aircraft, but that one is proceeding quite well. So we may need to follow up with an announcement on that. The next one's from Brandon, which I'll direct to Richard. What is your current expectation on the receipt of monies from Virgin Australia? And this is a question of when, not if. Yes, it's a question that we will receive monies, but we'll let Richard answer the rest of that.

Yeah, unfortunately, Brandon, the trustee of the creditors' trust hasn't provided any details of an expectation of a payout. There was some suggestion there was going to be an interim payout, but that hasn't eventuated. And so we're being left in the dark on that. We do expect there to be a payout. We know that the debt We get weekly calls from people wanting to buy that debt for money, so the market in general expects that to be made. Although, as we tried to explain in the presentation, the expectation is that it's not going to be the nine and a half cents that the administrator originally suggested. And in fact, he's been silent since then, in fact, and so is the trustee of the creditors' trust. We do expect to pay out. We were expecting it by the end of the financial year, but until we get that confirmation, we know as much as you do.

Thank you, Richard. Well, just to clarify, in the process of trying to get 40% of our adjudicated claim considered to be a priority claim, in which case we get a substantially greater share than we first advertised. Moving on, so the next one is from Michael. D, do you see an expansion into the US at all or further deployment in Europe? I can answer that. We are interested in further in Europe. We're less interested in the United States at the moment because typically US airlines and lessors have very low cost of funds and they tend not to deal with international leasing companies too much. The next one's from Brandon asking about any situation I think Rod can answer that one.

Yes, we don't think that AirBaltic will have serious issues. Like any European airline, I think something like 10% of AirBaltic's network was to destinations in either Ukraine or Russia. They only have three destinations in each country. And the bulk of their 70 destinations are in Europe. So we don't think that it's going to have a lasting effect on Air Baltic's financials.

Very good. Thank you. The next one is from Kellen. Can you give an update on the remarketing efforts for the six unutilized aircraft?

Yes, okay. So I mentioned already the Myanmar aircraft, we've already signed an LOI. Since the end of the year, in the last couple of months, in fact, we have signed two other LOIs. So we've signed one LOI for one of the Virgin, ex-Virgin ATR 72-500s. which is a lease, and we've signed an LOI for the sale of the two ex-Loganair, ex-Flybe, ex-Loganair aircraft, ATR 72 600s. So we only actually have two ex-Virgin ATR 72 600s remaining to be remarketed, and we have quite a lot of inquiries that we're following up on at the moment. And then the Garuda 737, which we're also following up on various inquiries. So we expect to clear those aircraft by the end of this half.

Thank you, Rod. Mosin's asked, can we provide an updated maturity schedule? The one in this presentation is still the old one. So on the screen, you'll see the liability structure loan maturities. Ian, can you confirm that that is still correct?

I would actually have to go away and reconcile that. I didn't produce that one.

Okay. Thank you for the answer. So we'll have to follow Thank you for your question. The next question, which Ian can also answer, is can you break down the proceeds of the 40 million aircraft sales in the period that was executed? How much was the debt repaid on these sales? That's a question from Helen to Ian.

Yes, sure. The net proceeds from the A220 was about $12.5 million, and the net proceeds from the A321, the older aircraft that we sold, was about 6.3. Does that answer your question?

Yeah, thank you. That answers the question. The next one is... Can you describe your capital allocation priorities if you receive significant proceeds from aircraft sales and Virgin? Well, clearly our job is to get the company profitable again. And that survives and generates money and everyone gets paid and so on. So the key priority for the company is to regrow sufficiently to ensure profitability as quickly as possible. But if there's excess capital, then a super trade for the company is clearly to deal with the unsecured bonds because they're very expensive and buying them is a good way to get rid answers your question. The next one is from Mosin. Will you be paying the next coupon in cash or do you still pick? Well, most of the coupon is paid in cash. There's a small component in pick and we'll decide at the right time, which is not yet, what we're going to do with that. The next question from Ken B is, how would you rate yourselves in handling the business over the last two years compared to your competitors? I guess I'll take that one. We have some very, very good competitors who are clearly very good at what they do. We have done very well. We were complimented by the banks, especially on our of the first to act and, if you like, start to execute on that strategy, which was very sensible and well received and we worked through it. I think we've been sensible about diversification and risk. You know, we've managed to, for example, avoid the Russia problem and some of the other big issues that have popped up for some of the newer players in the industry. We've certainly demonstrated that we could trade aircraft. We've transitioned a lot of aircraft. We've been constantly repositioning and successfully transitioning aircraft. So I think we compared, in reality, we're quite a small leasing company, but we've done pretty much everything that the largest leasing companies with lots so quite unfairly in our view with a high cost of funding because clearly some of them have older fleets and less attractive credits and lower costs of funding, which is quite difficult to reconcile. So I think we've done pretty well compared with some of them. Next one from Mosin is what first half 22 good run rate for revenues and after all these assets. Well, we haven't sold many aircraft. I think we'll maybe Ian, you can deal with that one.

Sorry, yeah, the run rate for revenue, I mean, obviously it will reduce in the second half because we sold a couple of aircraft and we are lining up further aircraft sales. And some of those were earning revenue in the first half of the year. So the run rate in the second half will reduce slightly compared to the first half. But we should be able to generate over $100 million revenue for the year.

The next question is from Reno. What is the impact of higher oil prices on the demand for aircraft that you are remarketing? Rod, you want to take that one?

Sure. So, I mean, I think that, you know, given that most of the aircraft that we're remarketing are the ATR-72s, you know, they're renowned to be one of the most fuel-efficient aircrafts. in the world, in fact. So I think airlines that operate those regional aircraft seem to be doing okay. And there's also moves with some of the airlines to move towards sustainable fuel as well. And the ATR is able to burn sustainable fuel. So that's also good development for the ATR.

And I mean, the fact is with place, you've got agreements to deal with almost all. Next one's from Ross and similar question from Matt and Daniel. So they're all asking about cashflow. So can you describe cash collection trends since the start of 2022? Given the impact of Omicron and the geopolitical uncertainty, then Matt asks, how does 91% collection rate compare with pre-COVID cash collection rates? Is this realistic for this to go to 100%? And Daniel asks, what are the collection rates for the six months ended December 21? Percent of customers and also percent of scheduled lease payments. So Ian, do you want to,

You might need to turn your mic on. The cash collection, the number that we published was 91%. for the six-month period. Prior to that, I think we were collecting about 75%, 76%. So obviously the cash collection rate has picked up significantly in the last half year, and that, you know, tallies with our experience of airlines recovering from the COVID period. I mean, in... For the rest of the year, we expect that trend to continue. Certainly, Philippine Airlines exited administration on the 31st of December and then made a couple of fairly substantial payments to us in early January. We had another customer that has cleared their arrears. And you'd also note that we've We've expressed in the notes in the financial report that we've reached an agreement with a major customer for the repayment of around $30 million of arrears, although that repayment will be staged over a number of periods. But the trend is clearly positive and we expect that trend to continue to improve.

Okay, there's a question from David. For the A320 that's been transitioned, does this mean you've secured its next customer? Yes, it does. It's a question from Mohsen. Have the full 42 million of asset sales proceeds been received? I only see 40 million in the cash flow state. That would be another question for Ian.

So I think you're confusing net proceeds with gross proceeds. We have sold aircraft for gross proceeds of $40 million, which has been reported in the half year. We have agreed to sell three more aircraft. And we've also reported in the presentation that the net proceeds from all of those aircraft combined will be around $42 million.

Okay, next one's from Matt. What are the terms of the Pell promissory note and what is the balance sheet value? Duncan, are we allowed to talk about the terms of the Pell promissory notes?

I think the detailed terms are confidential, but the promissory note will start to repay from the beginning of next year. I believe it's a period of 24 months.

Ian, the balance sheet value?

It's about $770,000. Okay.

I have... Right, okay. Next one from Mohsin. Other listeners are talking about a big influx of airplanes coming to supplies exit Russia. So even if you have no exposure to Russia, there is supposed to be increased pressure on lease rates and aircraft valuation. Any comments? I will comment on that. I mean, it is inconceivable and impossible for all those aircraft in Russia to leave Russia in the next 27 days or whatever is being talked about. It's physically impossible. So they won't come out, nor will their records. I don't know what will happen. It's a big problem if you're an owner of them. There will be a lot of financial difficulty for the lessors because clearly it's a lot of money. Will it immediately impact lease rates? I doubt it because when you sign a lease, it's in place for a long time and there was likely to be an aircraft shortage as COVID recovers because a lot of aircraft have left the industry and been retired forever. So in reality, what would happen is some aircraft would come out, they would get remarketed. It may have a short-term impact on lease rate. Probably won't impact us because as Rod disclosed earlier, we're pretty much down to roughly only a couple of aircraft and we sort of have views on where they can go. or us, but I can see it impacting some lessors with sort of outsized exposures to Russia. I think that answers the question. I mean, we don't want to speculate too much. Bradley, with the existing cash, potential income of five more planes in the Our job is to make sure that the company's profitable and is the right size to be profitable. And obviously, if the opportunity is there to buy bonds at a discount, we'll be doing it. We've certainly bought a few in the past and haven't been frightened to buy them. So it's a great idea, but the number one job is to ensure the company's profitable and therefore can grow and expand. Peter is asking, please may I ask whether there's been any sign of traditional banks increasing appetite for lending in the sector or is it too early to make judgements right now? Ian, do you want to deal with this one?

I think banks have been quite standoffish. You know, they're watching interest rates. They're watching, obviously, the pandemic play out. And now we've got the crisis in Ukraine. So it's not an easy time to be going to look for finance.

Next question is from Stephen. Does the transition of my own aircraft at least provide any further impairment? Ian, do you want to deal with that one?

A little bit too early to say. I mean, that aircraft is on our balance sheet as a finance lease. Obviously, if we terminate the lease to go to Myanmar, it'll come back onto the balance sheet as an owned asset and that we'll have to establish a valuation for it at that time. And then, of course, if we manage to lease the aircraft, which we will try to do, it'll be subject to our LEV accounting policy. And again, in terms of the following lease.

Rod's disclosed that we've signed the LOI to transition the aircraft, so there would be no material impairment on that. We can be confident of saying that. Peter asked, prior to the pandemic, the company had explored the potential sale Prior to the pandemic, the company had an approach from a potential buyer and we dealt with that as a public company should. So we hired an advisor to deal with the rest of it. So we didn't create the situation, the situation was created for us. And as a public company, people every week You'll hear some noise about people interested in X, Y or Z. So, you deal with those issues as they arise from the outside world and when and if people come along, they come along. I mean, clearly, the company's got a lot of value and people have different values on, different ideas about share prices. come along from time to time, but it's not something immediately that we really want to deal with unless it's a very attractive thing. Next one is, Phil, what caused the 1.8 million in aircraft maintenance and do you expect this to stay elevated?

Rod, do you want to deal with this one? Yes, okay. I think, well, Ian can maybe step in if I get this wrong, but I think the majority of that was the maintenance to the ATRs that we got back from Virgin, which all had to go through airframe checks before they could be re-delivered to another airline. think that's what that number is we still have a couple more aircraft to put through checks so there will be some more maintenance costs coming up but then once we've cleared the the uh unleashed uh number of aircraft the six aircraft then we we should be we should have no more after that um next one is from motion

Big question. Just to be clear, have you cancelled the $7.5 million worth of bonds already brought back? Duncan, have we cancelled them? They are for cancellation.

They've been brought back for cancellation. Technically, they're still in existence.

Question from Steven. In inflationary times, how do you see lease rates? Rod, do you want that one?

Sure, I can give one answer, which is, you know, lease rates, used aircraft lease rates are generally driven by supply and demand because, you know, The more supply there is on the market, the more desperate people get to place the aircraft and lease rates go down and vice versa. But as far as new aircraft are concerned, the price of new aircraft never seems to go down. They always seem to remain stationary or go up. So lease rates on new aircraft are more driven by the cost of debt that lessors are able to obtain in the markets.

Next one's from Phil, so there's two questions to go. So Phil, why did the company reclassify the three turboprops as finance leases? The answer is we've given a purchase option to the airline operating those planes to buy the planes at a price that works for us. So if we can, clearly we sell everything we buy, eventually we've got to sell. So occasionally we give options to buy aircraft which technically can become a finance lease. The last one is what are the delivery profile of 28 ATR purchase rights? I think Rod should answer this.

The purchase right doesn't have a delivery date attached to it. It's a guaranteed price, but without the delivery date attached, we just call upon deliveries when we have a need for them. That's great, Geoff.

We have a good price going forward.

So, Mark. I was just going to say, Jeff, you've answered every single question as they've come through. I was a bit fearful that for every one question you answered, there was another two that followed. But thank you once again to you and the team for taking such time to answer those questions. Jeff, I'm shortly going to redirect investors to provide you with their feedback and their thoughts and expectations, which I know is important to you and the company. But before doing so, I wondered if I may just ask you for a few closing comments to wrap up with.

Well, thank you for the support over the last couple of years. Clearly, it's been a very torrid time with COVID-19, which certainly is receding. The company's heading back towards profitability, engineering itself to do that. And we've demonstrated leadership in terms of our strategy and we've avoided some of the problems that our peers have. So we're well placed and thank you very much for your support and thank you for the management for doing what they've done and sticking with it. It's been a daily grind for the last two years, but we're getting there and we're enjoying the experience and thank you very much.

That's great. Geoff and to the team from Aviation, thank you once more for your time this afternoon and for your presentation. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as we'll now automatically redirect you for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Avation, I'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation and good afternoon and good evening to you all in Australia.