ASL Aviation, the Irish-based group that flies sub-contracted routes for several integrators and postal operators and tipped as a possible buyer of TNT Airways, is raising €100 million for undisclosed ‘expansion’ plans.
The company announced on Friday that it is borrowing a total of $101 million (€101 million) from BNP Paris and Lloyds Bank Commercial “to fund current growth plans”. Irish newspapers cited the group’s CFO Mark O’Kelly as saying the agreement with the two banks is “a welcome development” that will aid the company’s expansion strategy.
The news comes amid speculation that the aviation group could be a candidate to take over TNT Airways (and TNT’s small Spanish airline PanAir), which TNT is legally required to sell as part of the planned acquisition by FedEx since a US company cannot own a European airline. The FedEx-TNT deal is expected to complete in the first half of 2016, meaning that a buyer for TNT Airways needs to be found within the next few months.
ASL, whose shareholders are Belgian shipping group CMB (51%) and private equity firm Petercam (49%), was already lined up as the buyer of the Liege-based airline two years ago as part of the deal for UPS to buy TNT which was blocked by the European Commission.
Earlier this year, the Dublin-based group unveiled a single brand ‘ASL Airlines’ for its four European airlines as part of its ‘Platform for Growth’ strategy, which follows the acquisition of Switzerland’s Farnair Group in 2014. The four European airlines currently operate cargo flights throughout Europe for the leading express integrators (mostly DHL and UPS) as well as for France’s La Poste and other postal operators, along with other cargo services and diverse passenger flights.
Under the single brand strategy, Irish-based Air Contractors became ASL Airlines Ireland; French carrier Europe Airpost renamed to ASL Airlines France; Farnair Switzerland became ASL Airlines Switzerland; and Farnair Hungary re-branded to ASL Airlines Hungary. In total, 75 Europe-based planes out of the group’s c. 100-strong fleet now operate as ‘ASL Airlines’.
The group is also expanding outside Europe through South African carrier Safair, Thai cargo airline K-Mile and Indian airline Quikjet.
In 2014, the ASL Aviation Group flew 162,000 tonnes of cargo, had turnover of €332 million and made a net profit of €17 million.
