Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, TCR is Europe’s largest independent asset manager of airport ground support equipment (“GSE”). 

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Overview

TCR operates at more than 210 airports across more than 20 countries. Since inception, TCR has defined the market for leased GSE, providing high quality assets and a full service leasing, maintenance and fleet management offering to its clients, which are predominantly independent ground handling companies, airlines and airports. This enables GSE operators to concentrate on their core business of ground handling.

Why we invested

We were attracted to TCR due to its good asset backing, strong market position and barriers to entry.

GSE is a scarce resource that is critical to the functioning of an airport. Through first mover advantage, TCR has benefited from securing the largest independent GSE fleet in Europe. TCR has access to maintenance workshops in prime locations at airports, many of which are located airside, enabling the company to provide a high quality maintenance and asset management service, which results in high availability of TCR’s fleet. The company is also able to offer full-service rentals on a pan-European basis, thereby matching the footprints of its customers.

Outsourcing ownership of GSE equipment makes economic sense for independent ground handlers, as it allows them to manage the mismatch between short-term handling contracts and the typically 10-15 year useful life of equipment. TCR’s rental contracts are aligned with the ground handlers’ contracts with the airlines and are typically 3-5 years in duration; TCR experiences a high level of contract renewal.

The business has a diversified portfolio and is present at over 180 airports across 18 countries with a diverse contract and customer base. The investment in TCR provides exposure to the long-term growth in the aviation market, which is fundamentally GDP driven, yet it is expected to be insulated from short-term shocks to demand due to its exposure to aircraft movements rather than passenger numbers.

Recent developments

TCR materially outperformed expectations, resulting in a substantial increase in value by £92 million. This performance was driven by several factors, including significant contract wins, extensions and higher fleet utilisation rates. The company is benefitting from the combination of the post-Covid aviation recovery, high interest rate environment making on-balance sheet options less attractive for customers, and the green agenda in Europe driving strong demand for new electric ground service equipment.

In February 2024, TCR completed the bolton acquisition of KES, KLM Royal Dutch Airline’s ground equipment services subsidiary at Schiphol airport, adding incremental contracted EBITDA with a flagship European carrier and positioning TCR to support Schiphol’s decarbonisation ambitions. TCR’s footprint now spans more than 200 airports, positioning it well to grow organically with its existing clients as well as increasing market penetration of its full-service rental offering. To support its next phase of expansion, TCR successfully secured additional debt from existing and new lenders on attractive terms.