On the Record With
Bruce Van Allen, President and CEO, BBA
Aviation Services Orlando
Signature/BBA has paid around $50 million for acquisitions
this year—a quiet year by its standards—but two more U.S. FBO acquisitions are
imminent, says Bruce Van Allen, President and CEO of BBA Aviation Services
Group.
This year has seen Signature buy its first African FBO at
Cape Town, South Africa; buy out PrivatAir's FBO and hangars at Paris-Le
Bourget; and take over Transit Aviation at Louis Armstrong International
Airport in New Orleans.
Van Allen says, "Our Cape Town operation is up and running.
The PrivatAir acquisition has increased our ramp area by a factor of five, and
we are consolidating at Le Bourget, with further plans to become an even more
dominant player."
At London-Luton Signature has taken-over a former Honeywell
hangar of around 20,000-square-feet area and its associated ramp space.
At Teterboro, New Jersey Signature is in the middle of an
"expensive building program," with several 30,000-square-foot hangars going up
for tenant operations, in coopera
tion with the New Jersey Port Authority.
Show News asked if Permira had contacted either Signature or
parent BBA regarding the acquisition of all or part of the group?
"No they haven't, and I think Permira's takeover of Jet
Aviation is a good thing for them," he said. "We sure get inquiries from time
to time, but right now BBA is very happy with its aviation business and is
proud to move forward with it. BBA is anxious, ready and willing (to acquire
more) and has the financial depth and capability to grow very fast.
"We were aware that Jet Aviation was an (acquisition)
opportunity, but we chose not to pursue it, specifically as a very substantial
part of Jet's activity is aircraft maintenance, flight management and major
aircraft completions, which we don't do," said Van Allen. "Also, their FBO
business would not have been a good fit for us, as at many airports we are
direct competitors and we couldn't have absorbed them without Justice
Department involvement.
"We see the purchase of Atlantic Aviation's ten FBOs by the
Macquarie Bank last year, and Permira's take-over of Jet Aviation, as
interesting, but the multiples they are paying are quite high," continued Van
Allen. "The difference between the BBA Group and say Carlyle or Permira is that
they are private equity companies, whereas BBA is publicly traded. Ours is not
a short-term outlook, but typically private equity companies buy, consolidate
and sell."
On Signature's future expansion, Van Allen told Show News,
"As business aviation expands, we try to be there in advance. Strategically, I
think we are better positioned than others because of ASIG (Aircraft Services
International Group), our commercial global handling business. We find that,
until there is a critical mass of business aviation activity at a particular
airport, ASIG can handle it."
On the potential of Russia and Moscow he notes, "The jury
might be out at the moment following setbacks and unrest. I think business
generally has been hesitant there. Once
opportunities for openness appear and the corporations go
in, we'll be following. Right now I'm sensing there's easily as much interest
in the markets of India, Brazil and China as there is in Russia."
