Latest news with #RichardLong
Int'l Business Times
20-05-2025
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
Vista's Global Growth Strategy: Asia as the New Frontier
Just 10 years ago, Vista was primarily a European private aviation company with ambitions to expand. Today, it has transformed into what company leadership describes as "the first and only global private aviation company," with rapidly growing operations across Asia—a region that Vista's executive team now identifies as a critical frontier for future expansion. Recent financial moves by Vista, totaling over $1.3 Bil, have positioned the company to accelerate its growth in Asian markets while strengthening its global infrastructure—a strategic pivot that reflects the company's recognition of Asia's increasing economic significance. " $600 million as equity investment and $700 million on debt refinancing," explained Charlotte, Vista's CFO, in a recent interview. "On the equity side of things, we've always been open to new strategic partners that ultimately are bringing more than just capital to the table." This equity investment, led by a consortium through RRJ, an Asian-based private equity firm, represents more than just a capital injection. It establishes a strategic partnership that provides Vista with valuable networks and regional expertise essential for further penetrating Asian markets. "Richard Long, who leads RRJ, has been incredibly helpful with broadening our client base and getting us [to] the right people in Asia," Charlotte noted, highlighting the relationship-driven approach that's critical for success in Asian markets, and even more so in business aviation. Asia: The Emerging Powerhouse in Private Aviation While North America remains the world's largest private aviation market, Asia's rapidly growing economies and expanding base of high-net-worth individuals make it an increasingly important region for Vista's global strategy . This market opportunity hasn't gone unnoticed by Vista's leadership team. Unlike many competitors who prioritized the U.S. market first, Vista took a different approach, establishing strong positions in developing markets before fully committing to the competitive U.S. landscape. In fact, Vista has established a HQ in Asia over 15 years ago. "The largest market in the world is the U.S. and unlike most of our competitors, we came to the U.S. last," Charlotte explained. "We were originally a European company and probably only in 2022, when we acquired Jet Edge, did the VistaJet brand become a real competitive force in North America." This strategic sequencing has allowed Vista to build expertise in navigating diverse regulatory environments and cultural nuances—an experience that proves invaluable as it deepens its Asian presence. The growth potential in Asia is substantial. With the continent positioned as the second-fastest growing region globally, its economic development creates a natural demand for premium private aviation services, particularly as cross-continental business activity increases. "We're really well positioned to keep on growing in those markets," Charlotte emphasized when discussing regions becoming increasingly accustomed to private aviation. A Business Model Tailored for Asian Expansion VistaJet's subscription-based business model offers unique advantages in the Asian market, where businesses often prioritize capital efficiency and operational flexibility. The company's Program membership, which accounts for approximately 60% of VistaJet's revenue, provides guaranteed availability with fixed pricing through multi-year contracts. "We've secured our pricing with fixed contracts, with fixed pricing on Program, so there's [not] a lot of volatility and risk," Charlotte explained when contrasting VistaJet's model with traditional charter operations. When corporate clients sign up for membership, they secure guaranteed aircraft availability anywhere around the globe, from as little as 24h noticve. The three-year commitment structure also creates a stable financial foundation that enables Vista to make strategic investments in fleet expansion and service enhancements targeted specifically at Asian clientele. This predictability in service and costs resonates particularly well with Asian corporations expanding internationally. "What's important to know is when we sign a client on a Program, they're committing on a three-year basis to use our service and pay for them. So we've got a very clear cash info profile," Charlotte noted. This visibility into future cash flows provides Vista with the confidence to invest in expanding its Asian infrastructure. Operational Advantages in a Competitive Landscape Vista's operational model creates significant advantages as it expands in Asia. The company has pioneered what Charlotte describes as a "one-way pricing" strategy, wherein clients only pay for the occupied flight segments. "We carry the [aircraft] positioning component on us," Charlotte explained. "Therefore, we are incentivized to minimize that positioning." This approach has resulted in what Charlotte described as a "sub 30% ferry factor," meaning that nearly 70% of Vista's flight hours generate revenue—an impressive efficiency metric in private aviation. The company's completely mobile fleet with no designated home base allows for dynamic resource allocation, enabling Vista to rapidly adjust to shifting demand patterns across Asian markets. This flexibility is particularly valuable in a region with uneven but rapidly developing private aviation infrastructure. Technology serves as another key differentiator in Vista's Asian expansion strategy. As Charlotte highlighted, proprietary systems drive operational efficiencies that create competitive advantages in tech-forward Asian markets. "Part of the reason why we're able to achieve that low ferry factor is the technology that underpins all of our operations to drive efficiencies," Charlotte explained. Financial Strength Enabling Strategic Expansion Vista's recent financial transactions have significantly enhanced its market position and growth capabilities. The debt refinancing portion of Vista's recent capital raise was particularly strategic, allowing the company to optimize its financial structure. "In addition to reducing the amount of debt outstanding, the $700 million was predominantly refinancing existing debt. So we were paying down debt that we had, which had pretty aggressive amortization schedules," Charlotte noted. By restructuring its debt profile, Vista has created considerable financial flexibility, reducing its cash obligations by approximately $160 million a year through these transactions. This enhanced financial position enables Vista to pursue strategic opportunities in key Asian markets without the constraints that might limit competitors. "It just gives us more flexibility," Charlotte emphasized. "Diversifying our investor base is especially valuable in times of market volatility, when access to capital can quickly open or close." The Future of Vista in Asia Looking ahead, Vista appears positioned for continued expansion throughout Asia. The company's financial strength, bolstered by its recent capital raises, provides the flexibility to pursue strategic opportunities across the region. The membership client base has grown significantly over recent periods, with the pandemic acting as an "accelerant" according to Charlotte. This growth reflects broader market shifts toward asset-light solutions—a trend particularly evident among Asian corporations seeking operational flexibility and capital efficiency. "The objectives of both those transactions," Charlotte summarized regarding the recent financial moves, were to strengthen Vista's position with "enhanced free cashflow generation, but also flexibility within our financing structures and broader financial stability enhancements." This financial flexibility, combined with strategic Asian partnerships and a service model tailored to regional needs, positions Vista to capitalize on Asia's economic growth trajectory. As Asian businesses increasingly participate in global trade and investment, Vista's ability to provide seamless, premium private aviation services across continents represents a compelling value proposition. Vista's strategy demonstrates a forward-looking approach to private aviation, recognizing Asia not merely as a market to serve, but as a critical growth engine for its global ambitions. By building strong regional partnerships, optimizing its operational efficiency, and leveraging its financial strength, Vista has established itself as a pivotal player in Asia's private aviation landscape—with considerable room for further expansion as the region's economic influence continues to grow.
Telegraph
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The National Gallery's revamp is a triumph
At last! After two years of disruption, with shuttered galleries and dispiriting queues, the National Gallery is reopening in its entirety – with a swanky new lobby – exactly 201 years after it was inaugurated in a nearby townhouse on Pall Mall. For many, including me, its paintings are cherished friends. So, it's a relief to find more than a thousand of them looking this chipper – along with one or two new faces (including a slavering dragon like a berserk black cartoon lion, in a 16th-century altarpiece recently acquired for £16.4 million) – in a rare new redisplay of the collection, artlessly titled The Wonder of Art. The idea to undertake a systematic rehang followed the decision to enhance the cramped entrance of the Sainsbury Wing, a postmodern addition to the gallery unveiled in 1991; since this risked imperilling the Early Renaissance pictures upstairs, they had to be decanted – providing an opportunity to rethink how everything should be presented. Now, after passing through a curiously expansive, sofa-bedecked foyer (with a gigantic screen), reimagined by the German-born architect Annabelle Selldorf, who's tucked the cloakroom away downstairs (on a landing above the basement's untouched exhibition spaces), visitors head up, past Giorgio Locatelli's new restaurant on the mezzanine, to be confronted – splat! – by Mud Sun, a 16ft-wide mural by the British artist Richard Long. I love Long's work, in other contexts, but what is this wilfully atavistic beige splodge – a flaring, seemingly squiggling disc of tidal silt from the River Avon, smeared onto a blackened wall above the lifts – doing at the threshold of the National Gallery? His pseudo-rock painting looks like a partially unravelled Woolmark logo; I dread to think how uninviting it will appear when the sky outside is grey. Why not show off something dramatic and colourful from the collection? Thankfully, the rehung galleries dispel any grumbling. Responding to the architecture of the Sainsbury Wing, evoking a basilica, the curators recast the central spine of double-height spaces as a 'nave', adorned only with large religious pictures; secular favourites, such as The Battle of San Romano (c. 1438-40) by Paulo Uccello (newly conserved and reframed), or Sandro Botticelli's Venus and Mars (c. 1485), are now in single-height rooms on either side, as if in a palazzo. A massive 14th-century gilded altarpiece, made for a monastery in Florence, occupies the wing's southern wall, solo. Another altarpiece, painted a century later by the brothers Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo, and depicting the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, faces it to the north, almost 155 feet away – exemplifying the transition from 'gold-ground' painting to something with a greater sense of plasticity and depth. Between them, the gallery's biggest painted Crucifix is suspended in mid-air, alluding to the way it was once displayed, on high, in an Italian church. This contextual nod is a motif of the redisplay, which, wherever possible, emphasises painting's three-dimensionality – a welcome provocation in a digital age, when images are consumed as flat, backlit phantasms on smartphones. Next door, in William Wilkins's neoclassical 19th-century building, while a broad chronological sweep is maintained, art's materiality is also stressed, with a smattering of thematic displays of pictures executed with fragile pastels and 'plein air' oil sketches. Splendid rooms celebrate individual artists – Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Claude Monet (but not, surprisingly, Diego Velázquez) – including an instant-classic gallery with 10 (count 'em!) paintings by Titian. (Why hasn't this been done before?) According to the National Gallery's director, Gabriele Finaldi – who tells me, 'I'm just desperate to open the doors!' – this 'focus on strong personalities might be a sign of the times'. Art history for the age of the strongman, perhaps? Other innovations include 'transhistorical' displays inspired by JMW Turner's stipulation that two paintings by him bequeathed to the National Gallery should always be shown beside a pair of landscapes by Claude, his 17th-century predecessor. Thus, 'Le Chapeau de Paille', by Rubens, appears next to Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun's Self Portrait in a Straw Hat (1782), which it inspired. The latter commands a prominent spot in the Wilkins building – although The Mond Crucifixion (c. 1502-03), by Raphael, and George Stubbs's Whistlejacket (c. 1762) still boss the longest sightline, connecting the Sainsbury Wing's westernmost flank with a wall 595 feet away, at the gallery's eastern limit. 'Sometimes, you get it right the first time, don't you?' says curator Christine Riding, who has led the redisplay. Picking out Vigée Le Brun's self-portrait alerts visitors to the only, as Riding puts it, 'engineered' aspect of The Wonder of Art: the foregrounding of art by, depicting, or commissioned by women. Only one in around every 100 pictures in the National Gallery's collection of approximately 2,400 works of art – some postcard-sized, others vast – is by a woman. Four full-length female portraits appear together in room 11, including Henry VIII's potential bride, Christina of Denmark, pale-faced and decked out in black, as depicted by Hans Holbein the Younger (whose other paintings, frustratingly, are scattered across the museum's 66 rooms); elsewhere, a gallery dominated by Anthony van Dyck's colossal equestrian portrait of Charles I turns out really to be about the taste of his queen, Henrietta Maria. Yet, with calm, concise labels (which refrain from moralising, even when, if relevant, referring to 'enslaved labour'), the redisplay doesn't disparage long-dead artists, such as William Hogarth (take note, Tate!); rather, well thought through, and rarely forced, it's attuned throughout to the pleasures of aesthetics. I left exhilarated, having traversed the entire tradition of Western European painting, from the end of the 13th century to the start of the 20th. And, to think, we get to take this voyage for free.
