Ex-Sportingbet boss floats jet charter firm
SPORTINGBET’S former chief executive Nigel Payne will this morning storm back into the market spotlight with the flotation of his new venture, private jet charter firm Hangar 8, on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim).
Payne – who led Sportingbet from 2000 to 2006 and has since been a non-executive director – is non-executive chairman of Hangar 8, which says the charter market is set to balloon by five per cent per annum from 2011 as business travel returns strongly.
The firm has raised £2m on its admission to Aim through a placing of 1.33m shares – representing around 21 per cent of its total share capital – at 150p per share.
Hangar 8, which manages private jets for wealthy owners as well as chartering planes, said it would use the proceeds to increase spend on marketing, in order to attract new jet owners and high net worth charter customers to the business.
It also plans to bring the maintenance of its aircraft in-house, hoping to achieve cost savings and boost margins.
PAUL SHACKLETON
HEAD OF CORPORATE FINANCE, DANIEL STEWART
PAUL Shackleton has specialised in the small to mid cap corporate finance sector since 1996, having previously worked in the small company team at UBS and helped to found Bridgewell Securities before joining Daniel Stewart seven years ago.
Shackleton’s link with Nigel Payne, the former Sportingbet chief executive and now chairman of Hangar 8, is well-established: his team at Daniel Stewart acted as nominated adviser (Nomad) and broker to Sportingbet for many years on the Alternative Investment?Market (Aim), before it moved over to the main list of the London Stock Exchange in May this year.
Daniel Stewart is still retained as a secondary broker and adviser to the online gaming firm on the main market.
Shackleton was partnered on the Hangar 8 advisory team at Daniel Stewart by Emma Earl, who joined the firm in November 2009 from NCB. She had previously spent five years working at accountancy firm Grant Thornton.