SAHCO targets five-year 15% growth through cost management

Skye Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO), is targeting 15 per cent growth in the next five years through a deliberate cost management strategy that would enable it add value to shareholders in a consistent manner.SAHCO is the first company under the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) privatisation programme to successfully finalise an Initial Public Offering (IPO), and list its shares on a securities exchange.

Addressing stockbrokers at the firm’s Fact Behind the Listing’ of the company in Lagos, the company’s Managing Director, Basil Agboarumi, said the move will create long term shareholder value through profitable operation, and expansion of its business beyond Nigeria, into other West African markets. This is with a view to becoming the leading provider of passenger, ramp and cargo handling services in the West Africa sub-region.

“We have a plan in place in place for strategic alliance of partnership, expansion of our offerings and increasing our visibility in Nigeria and beyond. We will begin to look at cost management and we are projecting 15 per cent growth within the next five years,” Agboarumi said.He said the firm is strategically positioned to take advantage of growth opportunities in the Nigerian aviation industry, leveraging its established brand and reputation, strategic alliances, technical capacity, state of the art technology and equipment, and fully-trained and experienced staff.

He noted that on privatisation in 2009, market share of SAHCOL was just 20 per cent, but had grown to about 50 per cent nine years later. “We were building a lot of things is SAHCOL immediately we took over from the government. Within the period, we have built the best warehouse and trained and grew our manpower.”

The Chief Executive Officer, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Oscar Onyema, said SAHCO listing will not only showcase it as an established player in the aviation sector, but will enable the firm to actualise its strategic vision of becoming the leading provider of passenger, ramp and cargo handling services in West Africa.

“Today’s listing by Initial Public Offering of 1,353,580,000 ordinary shares of SAHCOL at a Listing Price of N4.65 per share is a result of several months of hard work by all parties to the transaction including the BPE, Securities and Exchange Commission, and The Exchange. “This listing has added N6.29 billion to the market capitalisation of the Exchange, further deepening the Nigerian capital market. It will also increase the visibility of SAHCO Plc, whilst solidifying its brand as a major player in the aviation sector.

“This listing shows the confidence SAHCO has in our platform, which has a total market capitalisation of N21.5 trillion across various asset classes. In order to remain competitive, we have implemented far-reaching transformational programmes that have improved market access, and provided products that are aligned to investors’ requirements. “We have also implemented several transparency initiatives (such as BrokerTrax, X-Compliance, X-Whistle, Compliance Status Indicator Symbols, X-Issuer etc.), which have significantly improved confidence to our market.