HAVING NETTED millions from the success of Ryanair, the family of the late Tony Ryan appears to have repeated the trick with another low-cost carrier, Tiger Airways in Singapore.
The Ryans owned 11.2 per cent of Tiger through an investment vehicle called Ryanasia and market sources yesterday suggested they could have earned up to €30 million from the sale of a large block of shares in the airline.
Ryanasia, along with fellow founding shareholder Indigo Partners and chief executive Tony Davis, are believed to have sold 65.8 million shares in Tiger at 1.90 Singapore dollars apiece.
This netted the shareholders 125 million Singapore dollars (€72 million) between them and appears to have given them a return of 32 times their original investment.
Details of the sale were reported by Bloomberg News yesterday.
Tiger listed in Singapore on January 22nd. The prospectus document published for its stock market debut stated that Ryanasia had paid just under 3.9 million Singapore dollars to acquire its 58.5 million shares in the business.
This equated to just 6.7 cent per share.
The Ryans initially held a 16 per cent stake in the business but this was diluted to 11.2 per cent on flotation as the airline raised funds to pay for an expansion of its activities in Asia and Australia.
It is not clear how many shares the Ryans sold as part of the recent block sale of stock.
But based on a pro-rata of the shareholdings, analysts suggested it was more than 40 per cent of the 65.8 million that changed hands.
The main beneficiary of the windfall will be Declan Ryan, Tony Ryan’s son, who is believed to own 50 per cent of the Tiger stock held by the family.
Tiger’s business model was based on that of Ryanair and other low-cost carriers.
As has been the case in Europe over the past decade, budget airlines in Asia are gaining market share from legacy carriers as they attract passengers with lower fares.
It is one of a number of airline investments held by the Ryans through a Dublin-based company called Irlandia.
They are also investors in Viva Aerobus in Mexico and Allegiant Airways, which operates in smaller cities in the United States.
Irlandia also holds their remaining shares in Ryanair, which was founded by Tony Ryan in 1985.
Irlandia declined to comment to The Irish Times yesterday on the sale of shares in Tiger.
Tiger raised 233 million Singapore dollars in its initial public offering in January.
Its latest results show it achieved net income of 1.9 million Singapore dollars in the three months to the end of June.
Founded in 2004, Tiger carried 4.8 million passengers last year and operates 36 routes in 11 countries.
The share sale was arranged by Morgan Stanley and Citigroup.