News: AQZ Alliance Aviation Services Posts FY Profit Attributable $27 MLN, page-2

My observations from today's announcements:

• The Bain Capital announcement on their Virgin Australia plans leaves plenty of opportunities for Alliance - the removal of ATR 72's from the fleet opens up some wet lease (or Alliances own RPT) opportunities with the E190's to ports such as Canberra, Tamworth and Port Macquarie.
• Bain Capital is looking to keep ownership of Virgin Australia Regional Airlines for now while it reviews options including different operating models to support regional and charter flying. So it appears that Alliance won't be buying the Virgin F100 fleet just yet, however the removal from services of the VERA A320's may provide some opportunities for Alliance to provide wet lease aircraft (assuming they aren't replaced with Virgin B737's). The ongoing VARA review may create some further opportunities for Alliance as this plays out.
• The confidence on the conversion of a number of ad-hoc FIFO contracts during COVID-19 disruptions into long term charter contracts sounds helpful.
• No final dividend has been declared "due to the Embraer fleet expansion project and a number of other growth projects being pursued". While the low amount of cash raised from the Share Purchase Plan won't have helped, this statement underscores that Alliance will be very cash hungry over the coming period. Directors and management have a great track record with their investment decisions, so I'm hopeful there may be some more expansion announcements in the wings..
• The 20 Largest Shareholders table in the annual report indicates that Qantas took up shares during the placement to maintain their 19.9% shareholding on the increased number of shares.