15 May 2023 

ESKEN LIMITED 

('Esken' or 'the Group') 

Share sale of Star Handling Limited

Esken, the aviation and renewables group, announces it has exchanged and completed on the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary Star Handling Limited to Skytanking UK Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Prime Flight Aviation Services, Inc, for a maximum cash consideration of £4.8m on a debt free cash free basis.

Under the terms of the agreement, Esken has received £3.46m in cash, with up to a further £0.38m being payable following agreement of completion accounts. An additional payment of up to £0.96m (being 20% of the maximum consideration) is deferred and will be payable subject to the business achieving forecast customer revenue targets in the 12 months following completion. The cash consideration will be used toward debt repayment.

Star Handling carries out ground handling operations at London Stansted Airport and Manchester Airport. The sale of these operations is part of Esken's wider strategy to explore a sale of its Aviation businesses, as announced in the Group's trading statement on 2 March 2023. Esken's remaining ground handling operations post disposal will maintain the in-house passenger handling services at London Southend Airport.

The buyer intends to operate the services at Stansted and Manchester under a new brand name. 

Additional information

The disposal constitutes a Class 2 transaction for Esken for the purposes of the Financial Conduct Authority's Listing Rules.

As at 28 February 2022, Star Handling Limited had gross assets of £5.7 million and net liabilities of £5.4 million. The loss before tax for the year ended 28 February 2022 was £0.8 million.