The private Scorpio Services Holding of Monaco is looking in a new direction for its latest investment, and that direction is up.
Scorpio has become the largest outside shareholder in Oslo-listed budget airline Norse Atlantic Airways, according to a new filing with the Oslo Stock Exchange.
The investment vehicle, which is majority-owned by the family of Scorpio chief executive Emanuele Lauro, has accumulated 6.77m shares, or a 10.17% stake, in Norse Atlantic, according to the filing on Tuesday.
The cache is worth nearly NOK 148m (about $13.6m) and is more than double the holding of the next-largest outside investor, Goldman Sachs, according to available filings.
“We refer to these airplanes as ships of the air,” Scorpio Group president Robert Bugbee quipped in an interview with TradeWinds.
But in a more serious moment, New York-based Bugbee described the outlay as “just an investment”.
“The idea is simple,” he said. “They’re low cost. Flight demand is improving post-Covid. They have a great operation with very modern aircraft on well below-market lease finance.”
Scorpio further considered that the airline says it does not require further capital and, according to guidances on booking, expects to turn cash-positive soon.
“Further they have a diversified flight and customer revenue source, so despite the name, they are not reliant on a Norwegian customer base,” Bugbee said.
Norse Atlantic is a low-cost, long-haul airline headquartered in Arendal. Founded in February 2021, it operates a fleet of Boeing 787 aircraft between Europe and North America. It started operations in June 2022 with a flight from Oslo to New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport.
Other destinations include London and Paris in Europe, and Los Angeles, Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the US. It has further ambitions to begin serving Asia and the Caribbean.
The largest shareholding stake is held by an affiliate of CEO Bjorn Tore Larsen at just under 20%.
Shipments by sea or air
There have been connections between shipping and the airline industry before, not least the shipping activities of serial entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who is better known as the founder of low-cost airline group EasyJet.
Scorpio Services’ majority shareholder is Lauro’s mother, Annalisa Lolli-Ghetti. Additional stakes are owned by Lauro, Bugbee and Scorpio chief operating officer Cameron Mackey.
Scorpio Services Holding has been a backer of New York-listed product tanker owner Scorpio Tankers and its former sister company, Scorpio Bulkers, which has transitioned out of the dry trade and into the installation of wind turbine installation vessels for the offshore wind industry.
The outfit recently expressed its faith in the clean products market by taking substantial ownership stakes in Scorpio competitors Ardmore Shipping and Hafnia.
