Nicolas Finazzo
Analyst · Cowen. Please state your question
Thanks, Christine. Good morning to everyone on the line and thank you for joining our call today. I’ll begin with brief comments about AerSale and our strategy, followed by an overview of the quarter, operational updates, and progress on major programs and initiatives. I’ll then turn the call over to Martin for a closer look at the numbers. For those of you unfamiliar with AerSale, we operate a purpose-built fully-integrated multidimensional aftermarket aviation model that includes part procurement, flight equipment sales and leasing, MRO, FAA certifications, and aircraft storage and decommissioning. This allows us to keep a close pulse on the market, identify attractive flight asset purchase opportunities, and deliver a higher overall value to our customers, as we touch every part of the aircraft maintenance cycle. Our battle tested model has proven very effective, even under extreme stress in the industry, as we’ve demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the effects of COVID resulted in a massive reduction of flight capacity by the airlines, our aircraft storage facilities quickly filled up with decommissioning work and storage maintenance revenue helping to offset much of the decline in routine MRO work and Used Serviceable Material, USM part sales. Further, insight gained from firsthand observation of passenger aircraft coming out of service has allowed us to quickly pivot our efforts to cargo aircraft that remained in high demand throughout the pandemic. This allowed us to identify feedstock opportunities to serve the freighter market, specifically through our 24 aircraft Boeing 757 fleet acquisition announced last year and expansion of our passenger to freighter conversions being performed at our Goodyear Arizona MRL. We are currently scheduled to convert 5 of the aircraft acquired using the industry preferred precision aircrafts cargo conversion kit, with the first completion expected later this month and under contract for sale to a Canadian cargo operator. Conversions 2, 3 and 4 are also under LOI and in the lease documentation phase with the U.S. cargo operator. We’re in discussions with multiple additional customers for our 5th conversion, with scheduled cargo completion in the first quarter of 2022. As we acquire or repair more engines, we have an option with precision to purchase up to 5 more cargo conversion kits to modify aircrafts 19 through 23, potentially leaving only 1 of the original 24 aircraft fleet for partout. Our capacity to acquire a large fleet of aircraft, perform cargo conversions, secure coveted precision cargo conversion kits, and find the cargo customers for aircraft converted on spec differentiates us from our peers and provides yet another high-margin revenue outlet for the company’s flight equipment. As we review our business results, there are a few important things to keep in mind. First, we generally don’t focus on quarterly year-over-year analysis to assess our financial performance, which you’ll notice throughout our commentary. The rationale for this is simple, our asset management, acquisition and flight equipment sale businesses are one of the cornerstones of our success, and account for large transactions at regular times throughout the year. As we discuss our results, we’ll make it a point to update our investors on these key transactions for both the current year and prior-year periods. More importantly, we believe relevant indicators for our business performance, our asset acquisitions and activities, the outlook for flight equipment sales throughout the year, progress on engineered solutions, STC development and contracts and the underlying performance of our MRO business. With that in mind, we’re performing well and as expected in 2021, with first quarter consolidated sales of $58.4 million, sales in the prior year with $57.1 million. Sales levels in 2021 have been primarily supported by $13.8 million of flight equipment sales, continued demand for aircraft storage, maintenance and strong MRO demand, which was offset by lower leasing from aircraft, whose lease has expired, combined with lower USM part sales volume, which is still under pandemic related pressure. Turning to profitability, our first quarter 2021 adjusted EBITDA was $16.5 million or 28.2% of sales, compared to $9.4 million or 16.5% of sales in the prior year. Higher adjusted EBITDA margin during this period was attributable to strong cost controls and higher gross margin mix. The period also included $6.4 million of CARES Act proceeds, which did not occur in the prior quarter and are not excluded, because we cannot reduce the associated labor costs for the year to remain in compliance with CARES Act grant restrictions. On the specific quarters that include CARES Act proceeds, it does create a lift to margin performance. To dig into the specifics by segment, and beginning with Asset Management. During the quarter, we sold $13.8 million of flight equipment representing the sale of 1 Boeing 737-800 NG airframe; and 2 Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines to cargo operators; and 1 Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engine for parts. As we took advantage of market dynamics where there was strong interest in purchasing whole engines in support of USM needs. Our aircraft and leasing revenue was down compared to the prior year as a result of 3 Boeing 747 passenger aircraft leases that expired. We decided not to invest in returning this aircraft to service, as we concluded they have a higher value as whole engines, USM airframe and engine parts. Of the 12 General Electric and Pratt and Whitney engines removed from these 3 747s. The serviceable ones have been added to our engine lease pool, and the engines needing extensive repairs and the airframes will become feedstock for our USM parts business, as we take advantage of strong demand in this platform from cargo operators. This reduces our fleet – aircraft lease fleet to just 4 aircraft, 2 passenger and 2 freighter, all of which have been performing well. This aircraft portfolio reduction is not a coincidence. Over the past several years, we have been anticipating a market downturn and have been strategically reducing our leased aircraft fleet. Unlike pure-play aircraft leasing companies’ post-COVID, we’ve not had to forgive rent in order to keep the aircraft on lease. As such, all of our flight equipment is generating an acceptable amount of revenue, keeping our balance sheet clean with no debt and plenty of capacity to add more flight equipment assets to our portfolio, as the industry recovers. We continue to mark to market for asset purchases and believe that opportunities will become more attractive in the back half of 2021, once airlines are able to resume more normalized service levels and can better assess their fleet requirements. Regarding our 24 aircraft Boeing 757 fleet acquisition program, we’ve made good progress on either the sale or lease of the first 18 aircraft. In the balance of our Asset Management business, we’re seeing an uptick in USM part sales as carriers gear up for a stronger anticipated summer. But overall volume is still down from pre-pandemic levels. We’re also challenged in this business by limited feedstock availability at attractive prices. However, we expect this dynamic will become more favorable over the next 18 months. Turning to our TechOps business. Total sales in the quarter were quite strong and driven by continued demand at our aircraft storage locations, along with high demand for MRO as airlines begin to recommission aircraft. Aircraft storage maintenance has been a strong offset to lower pandemic-related volume in other parts of our business. We do expect our facilities to remain full even as some aircraft are recommissioned as storage demand has far exceeded capacity, and an extended recovery will continue to fill any vacancies for some time. Reviewing the product development side with Engineered Solutions, we produce highly specialized products that comply with regulatory mandates and/or enhance the safety of commercial aircraft. We’re currently marketing 3 products including AerSafe and AerTrak for which we hold supplemental type certificates, STCs issued by the FAA. Sale of our existing STCs have netted strong margins, and all of our STC products will serve a customer base of over 16,000 aircraft. Regarding AerAware, which is expected to have the largest addressable market of any of our STCs, we made substantial progress towards gaining STC approval and completed additional flight tests with a potential launch customer during the period. We continue to work with the FAA both in reviewing our proprietary engineering data and performing test flights using our Boeing 737-800 NG prototype test aircraft. In summary, after our first full quarter as a public company, we’re exactly where we anticipated we would be. Our MRO facilities are full and our diversified portfolio continues to support our business performance in a dynamic operating environment. We remain very enthusiastic about the future and look forward to updating our investors in the coming quarters. Over a year into the pandemic, our employees have shown great flexibility and resiliency. Our strong financial performance is the result of their dedication and the multi-dimensional and fully integrated business model we spent the last decade building. The diversity of our revenue sources has created a counter cyclical hedge, enabling AerSale to thrive in a challenging commercial aviation market. I’ll be back to answer questions in a few moments. But for now, I’ll hand it over to Martin for a look at the numbers.