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Discovery Air Inc. (the “Corporation”) has announced its financial and operating results for the quarter ended April 30, 2014 (“Current Quarter”). The interim condensed consolidated financial statements and management discussion and analysis (“MD&A”) will be available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Corporation’s website at www.discoveryair.com.
Financial Highlights
- Consolidated revenues decreased 6 per cent for the Current Quarter, in comparison to the three months ended April 30, 2013. The decline was largely attributable to lower resourced-based activity in our primary markets.
- EBITDA loss for the Current Quarter improved 56 per cent in comparison to the same quarter in the prior year, stemming from improved fixed cost management. In particular, the fixed wing operation benefited from lower infrastructure cost associated with the cessation of the executive jet service in late Fiscal 2014.
- Loss for the Current Quarter improved 12 per cent to $7.7 million ($0.52 basic and diluted loss per Share) compared to $8.8 million ($0.59 basic and diluted loss per Share) in the same quarter in the prior year. The difference is largely attributable to improved EBITDA ($1.2 million).
Recent Developments
On April 28, 2014, the Corporation completed the rights offering announced on Feb. 24, 2014 raising approximately $1.7 million in gross proceeds from the issuance of 1,952,009 Class A common voting shares. Subsequent to the quarter end, on May 2, 2014, the Corporation issued a further 15,047,284 Class A common voting shares and 442,567 Class B common variable voting shares, for aggregate gross proceeds of $13.3 million (at $0.86 per Share) to certain of funds and co-investors of Clairvest Group Inc. (“Clairvest”) pursuant to a certain standby purchase agreement between the Corporation and Clairvest.
On March 31, 2014, the Corporation entered into a loan agreement with Element Financial Corporation in the principal amount of $21.5 million. The proceeds from the loan were used to refinance approximately $20.5 million in existing term indebtedness.
Commenting on the financial results, Jacob (Koby) Shavit, the Corporation’s president and chief executive officer stated, “Our recent equity raise and debt refinancing have improved our liquidity position, and more importantly, provided stability to support our growth opportunities in the international airborne training market.
I am pleased with our progress in streamlining our operations without compromising the high level of service demanded by our customers. The improvement in EBITDA despite lower revenues highlights the results of the corporate wide mandate to streamline our operations. We also continue to assess our aircraft from a strategic and long term utilization perspective, which will result in recalibrating our fleet to support optimal growth and return on our assets.
As we look ahead to our peak season, we remain vigilant in monitoring and reacting swiftly to changes in the demand for our services in resource-based markets we serve as well as the Canadian government’s demand for our airborne training services. At the same time, we are applying a more focused business development and sales effort with the objective of creating and winning new opportunities for our fleet.”
The Corporation’s unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and MD&A for the quarter ended April 30, 2014, have been filed concurrently and are available on the Corporation’s website at www.discoveryair.com and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The reader is encouraged to review the unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and MD&A for the quarter ended April 30, 2014 for more complete disclosure on the Corporation’s financial condition and results of operations.
The Corporation’s Class A common voting shares and unsecured convertible debentures trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols DA.A and DA.DB.A, respectively.
