The coronavirus crisis has not stopped the world’s rich from traveling: they fly more and more in private jets, with some making huge profits from the industry.
Bill Gates, Nassef Sawiris, James Packer and Kerry Stokes have amassed more than $ 1.2 billion in the world’s largest operator of private jet bases, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. 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 virtually triple from its low. at the middle of March.
Private aviation is one of the few categories of travel that has remained afloat during the covid-19 pandemic, offering the wealthiest the opportunity to fly while minimizing potentially risky contact with other passengers. While global airline passenger traffic has plummeted, private jet activity has improved and, in the first three weeks of January, remained at the same level as in early 2020, despite a resurgence of the virus, according to an investigation from aviation data and consulting company WingX.
“Some clients were only flying commercial jets before the pandemic, but COVID-19 changed all that,” said Michael S. Harris, director of wealth manager Verdence Capital Advisors, which oversees about $ 2.5 billion. “The way we travel now could have changed forever.”
Gates, who became Signature’s largest shareholder after emerging as an investor in the company in 2009, quadrupled his stake between July and August. Sawiris, the richest person in Egypt according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has more than doubled his stake in the past year to 7.4%, making him the company’s third-largest owner. Investment firms from casino billionaire Packer and media mogul Stokes appeared last month as beneficiaries of a trust managed by 2B Investments (Australia) Holdings Pty, which emerged as a shareholder as the pandemic was gathering steam last year in March. .
The 16% stake that Gates owns directly through his parent company, Cascade Investment LLC, is now worth about $ 780 million, while his family’s charitable foundation controls an additional 2.7% valued at nearly US $ 780 million. $ 150 million, according to regulatory documents.
Representatives for Signature, Cascade Investment and Seven Group Holdings Ltd., where Stokes is president, declined to comment.
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google News
