Avation PLC

Good morning, 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 can review all questions submitted today and will publish those responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll, and if you could give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. I'd now like to hand over to Group General Counsel, Duncan Scott.

Thank you. Today, on the 1st of March, Evasion published its unaudited half-year results for the six months ended 31st of December, 2023. A copy of our results announcement is available on our website at www.evasion.net. The conference call is being webcast and recorded, and the webcast will be available for replay on our website. Please note that certain statements in the conference call, including answers to your questions, are forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements regarding our future operations and performance, revenue, 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, 1st of March 2024. These estimates involve risks and uncertainties that 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, including its annual report and our unaudited results announcements. Ovation assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information in light of future information or future events. Unauthorized recording of this conference call is not permitted. I now hand over to Executive Chairman Jeff Chatfield.

Thank you very much. Thank you for joining this investor call where we discuss our half year results. In the six months ended 31st of December, 2023, Avation continued to de-lever its balance sheet, added liquidity and improved collections of receivables. Transition one aircraft to a new lease with Cebu Pacific and dealt with the repossession and sale of an aircraft leased in India. The company expects to conclude the delayed sale of an off-lease ATR 72, shortly, at which point the fleet will be fully utilised for the first time since early 2020. According to IATA, the latest market update, 2023 was marked by strong industry-wide recovery and the company's seen market valuations for commercial aircraft increase. These factors are supportive of the company's business plan. So if I take you now to the snapshot. As at 31st December, 2023, Avatian's fleet comprised 35 aircraft leased to 15 airlines in 13 countries. Avatian owns a diverse fleet comprising 52% narrow body aircraft, 30% regional turbo props and 18% wide body by value. 76% of Evasion's lease revenue is derived from Asia with the remainder derived from Europe. The fleet has good metrics with 6.9 year weighted average age and 4.6 year weighted average remaining lease term. Fleet assets have a net book value of 871 million. Total assets are around 1.2 billion and there is 450 million of future contracted lease receivables. the portfolio as at 31st of December. Evasion's diversified fleet is dominated by fuel efficient regional and narrow body aircraft, which generally operate on domestic and short haul routes. These sectors were the fastest recover after COVID. Regional and narrow body aircraft types have seen strong demand and market value growth since the end of the pandemic. Upon the completion of that transaction we talked about, Avation's fleet will be 100% utilised, which is a very important point to get to. Avation has two firm orders for ATR 72 aircraft scheduled for delivery in 24. The original scheduled delivery dates for these aircraft were April and May and were pushed back to later in the year by agreement with the manufacturer. Our 28 purchase rights are available for new ATR aircraft to be delivered by the end of June 27. In terms of customer base, as of 31st of December, Aviation had 15 customers in 13 countries. We'll add a new customer on commencement of a lease of an ATR 72 to start in March or April. Around 76% of Avation's customers are located in Asia, with the remainder in Europe. Avation's top three customers buy revenue of Vietjet, AirBaltic and EVA Air, who currently provide around 59% of monthly revenue. And Airbus A32200 commenced a new four-year lease with an existing customer with Cebu Pacific in early December. The earliest leased expiry is September 24, although we currently expect that lease to continue through to March 25, at which point we'll release the aircraft. Aviation has a focus on new or relatively young latest technology aircraft and is therefore a natural seller of midlife or older aircraft. In terms of operational highlights, the company terminated the lease of a 12 year old ATR72500 aircraft on lease to an Indian airline in October 23 and repossessed the aircraft. The lease was terminated due to a payment default. The aircraft was not in good maintenance condition and was sold as is where is to another airline resulting in a loss of 2.9 million. The company is pursuing the lessee for recovery of losses, but has made a total bad debt provision in the half year results for the amount due. Avation's last off-lease ATR 72 aircraft is expected to start a new lease with a new customer in March or April. This is the last remaining aircraft delivered to the company by Virgin Australia in 2020 following Virgin's period of administration. I'll now hand over to Ian Corp, the CFO, who will provide details on the financial results.