Era’s second quarter profit rises despite low oil price

Era Helicopters Sikorsky S-76C++

Era Group announced an impressive profit of $11.3 million for its second quarter of 2015, compared to $5.2 million in the same quarter of 2014. It did this despite falling sales which were down by $15.8 million.

The results were helped by the sale of its Alaskan FBO bases for $14.3 million but it also cut costs impressively. Without the sale of the Alaskan business and its acquisition of Sicher Helicopters in Columbia its net income would still have been $4.1 million. The FBO sale also contributed to the fall in sales. Era also saw a drop in medium helicopter utilization.

Era also sold five single engine helicopters in the quarter. It made cash proceeds of $3 million and net losses of $0.2 million. The operator booked a small gain on two helicopters – both less than 10 years old – but made losses on the three older assets.

Without the sales, Era’s EBITDA was $20.5 million compared to $22.4 million. This gave it a 29% margin compared to 26% in Q2 2014.