The great benefit of the Japanese bank relationship (SBI Leasing - part of Tokyo listed SBI Holdings) is that PTB will no longer have the higher risk exposure to the financial side of leases. PTB's role is to broker the deal between the customer and SBI (for which they get a fee) and they benefit because the leases are done on the basis that customer signs an engine management contract with PTB. This allows PTB to grow while sticking to it's core business of engine MRO.
This will hopefully prevent a repeat of Emerald (which to be fair is almost 15 years ago now). I don't think PTB have attempted an acquisition since - they have grown organically through building the test cell in Brisbane, signing more engine management contracts directly and via SBI, starting the USA shop (which has gone OK but was always sub-scale) and moving IAP more onto higher turnover engine/parts management rather than trading in air-frames.
PTB Price at posting:
45.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
