Gama Aviation has snapped up Jersey business aviation services provider Aviation Beauport for over £5 million ($8 million).
The acquisition of the Channel Islands-based company – which is expected to be completed in February, subject to regulatory approval – marks the first purchase by Farnborough, UK-headquartered Gama of a business with a fixed-base operation at its core.
“Gama has two FBOs in its portfolio – in Aberdeen, Scotland and in the Emirate of Sharjah – but these were developed as part of our organic growth at both sites,” says Gama’s chief marketing officer, Duncan Daines.
The purchase of privately owned Aviation Beauport could trigger similar acquisitions by Gama in the future. “We are always on the look-out for companies that will complement our business and help us to expand internationally,” adds Daines.
Gama is already one of the largest business aviation services companies in the world, operating across 46 locations with a charter and management fleet of around 150 aircraft.
As well as the FBO, Aviation Beauport brings to the Gama portfolio a large hangar and four managed business jets – a Cessna Citation Mustang, Cessna XLS, XLS+, and a Dassault Falcon 2000.
The company's location is also strategically important for Gama. Jersey – with its low tax regime and secretive companies register – is home to a sizeable community of high-net-worth individuals and is a burgeoning base for business aircraft. In November 2015, the British crown dependency launched a dedicated private aircraft register to exploit this growing market.
Chris Kelleher, who heads up business development for the registry, says: “Today we have one aircraft on the register of ZJ-prefixed aircraft and have several more in the pipeline.”
The Jersey base will also bolster Gama’s European infrastructure ahead of the 2017 launch of Wheels Up's membership-based aircraft programme on the continent, which Gama will support.It already participates in the Beechcraft King Air 350i-based venture in the US, through its Gama Charters subsidiary.
The acquisition is also Gama's first return to the market since its December 2014 reverse takeover of UK-listed Hangar8, which had since 2012 been working on the development of a new 4,650m² (50,000ft²) facility at Jersey airport. Construction of the handling and maintenance hangar – located adjacent to the Aviation Beauport operation – is understood to already be under way.
Source: Flight International
