Bill Gates, Nassef Sawiris, James Packer and Kerry Stokes have accumulated more than $1.2 billion in the world’s largest operator of private-jet bases. The company, Signature Aviation Plc, has recently become the focus of a takeover fight involving Blackstone Group Inc., Carlyle Group Inc. and Global Infrastructure Partners, helping its shares almost tripled since a low in mid-March.
Blackstone and Gates’s Cascade Investment LLC are weighing a takeover offer of at least $5.17 a share, or $4.3 billion before debt, for Signature Aviation Plc, which also provides passenger amenities and technical support for business jets. The bidding group will most likely need to raise its offer to seal the deal after Global Infrastructure Partners made a $5.50-a-share proposal, but Cascade’s preexisting 19% stake in Signature gives the Blackstone team a significant edge.
Gates, who’s become Signature’s biggest shareholder after surfacing as an investor in the company in 2009, boosted his stake four times between July and August. The recent takeover fight has been a big lift to the shares, taking Signature’s market value to 3.5 billion pounds ($4.8 billion). After the company received Blackstone’s approach backed by Gates, Carlyle said it was considering making a bid and has until February 4 to formalize its interest. GIP rejoined the contest January 11 with a $4.6 billion buyout that Signature agreed to, though it added it would consider other proposals. Both Blackstone and Gates, who have teamed up, as well as Carlyle, could still trump GIP with higher offers.
The 16% stake that Gates owns directly through his holding company, Cascade Investment LLC, is now worth about $780 million while his family’s charitable foundation controls an extra 2.7% valued at almost $150 million, filings show. Sawiris’s NNS owns about $350 million after accumulating additional shares in Signature last month, increasing his bet on a bidding war and the private-jet industry.
While travel restrictions and health concerns have kept many corporate fleets grounded, those who can afford to travel privately and avoid crowded airports are doing so, a boon for charter flights and companies such as NetJets that offer fractional shares in private planes. A popular refrain in the industry is that once people fly private, they aren’t eager to go back to the headaches of commercial air travel. And the ultra-wealthy individual has largely been a winner in the pandemic thanks to rising asset prices. Eventually, businesses will start sending their executives around the world again, too, providing another leg of growth.
