Air Global PLC (AIIR) H1 2026 Earnings: Revenue $207M (+3.7%)
AIIR — H1 2026 Financial Report Analysis
H1 (Interim) · Fiscal year 2026 · Published by Pham Hop
AIR Global grew H1 2026 revenue 3.7% to $206.9M as 14% price/mix offset a Hormuz-driven 9% volume drop, but ~$96M of Nasdaq listing costs turned the half into an $81.8M net loss; adjusted EBITDA was flat at $71.7M.
Revenue
$207M
+3.7% YoY
Net income
-$82M
Diluted EPS
$-0.57
Operating margin
-30.7%
This period vs a year ago
Same period last year
This period
Revenue▲+3.7%
≈$200M
$207M
Year-ago figures (≈) are worked out from the growth rate the company reported. Each row has its own scale.
AIR Global, the Dubai-based maker of Al Fakher shisha tobacco, grew first-half 2026 revenue 3.7% to $206.9 million, even though closing the Strait of Hormuz cut its March shipments by 38.6%. The Strait normally carries about 70% of its shipment volumes. The reported bottom line is a $81.8 million net loss, against a $31.9 million profit a year earlier. Most of that swing comes from about $96 million of costs tied to the May 2026 Nasdaq listing, which happened through a merger with a SPAC (a listed shell company set up to merge with a private business). This is AIR's first results release as a public company. It covers the six months to June 30, 2026, reported under IFRS in US dollars.
At a glance
Revenue +3.7% to $206.9M on 9.0% lower volumes. Price increases and a richer product mix added 14.0%. Growth came from charging more per unit, not from selling more units.
Net loss of $81.8M (–$0.57 per share). $47.7M of listing cash costs and a $48.2M non-cash charge for shares issued to the SPAC sponsor explain most of the gap from last year's profit.
Adjusted EBITDA flat at $71.7M. This is the company's measure of underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, excluding one-offs. Being flat means price rises only just covered higher logistics, raw-material and new public-company costs.
The numbers
Metric
H1 2026
H1 2025
YoY Change
Revenue
$206.9M
$199.5M
+3.7%
Gross profit
$116.8M
$114.0M
+2.4%
Gross margin
Read 0 community reports on Air Global PLC, or write your own.Write a report
56.4%
57.2%
–0.8 pts
Operating profit / (loss)
($63.6M)
$51.5M
NM
Operating margin
–30.7%
25.8%
NM
Net profit / (loss)
($81.8M)
$31.9M
NM
Diluted EPS
($0.57)
$0.22
NM
Adjusted EBITDA (non-IFRS)
$71.7M
$71.7M
+0.1%
Adjusted EBITDA margin
34.7%
35.9%
–1.2 pts
FSM shipment volumes
—
—
–9.0%
FSM price/mix
—
—
+14.0%
Operating cash flow
($0.1M)
$9.0M
NM
NM = not meaningful (the company swung from profit to loss). FSM = flavored shisha molasses, the company's core product. Gross margin is the share of revenue left after the direct cost of making the product. Operating margin is the share left after all running costs, before interest and tax.
How the half actually unfolded: a lost March, then a strong Q2
The six-month total blends two very different quarters. The interim statements show revenue of $135.7M in the second quarter, up 23.5% from $109.9M a year earlier. Subtracting that from the half-year total leaves about $71.2M for the first quarter, down roughly 20.5% from about $89.6M. The March disruption hit Q1, and Q2 recovered. Management says purchase orders "have remained intact," so shipments missed in March were pushed back rather than lost. Wholesalers ran down their stock in the meantime. Shipment volumes returned to growth in June.
Volume fell 9.0% for the half. Most of the damage was in Global Travel Retail (sales to airport and duty-free channels), where volumes fell 46.5%. Excluding it, volumes were down 6.6%. The 14.0% price/mix gain came from what the company calls "accelerated pricing actions in H1'26 to offset cost inflation." It pulled the whole year's price increases into the first half. The shareholder letter says price/mix "wouldn't be as strong in H2'26" because the price rises will be compared with a higher year-earlier base. In a normal year it expects 4–6%+.
By region
Segment
Revenue H1'26
YoY
Adj. EBITDA H1'26
Adj. EBITDA H1'25
FSM – Middle East, Africa & Asia (MEAA)
$136.7M
+4.0%
$59.7M
$62.3M
FSM – Americas
$42.8M
+3.4%
$19.8M
$16.9M
FSM – Europe
$25.2M
+0.4%
$0.1M
$1.8M
New Growth Categories (vapes, pouches)
$2.2M
+37.5%
($7.9M)
($9.3M)
MEAA is two-thirds of revenue. Price/mix there rose 17.1%, but adjusted EBITDA fell 4.0%. This segment includes travel retail and the corporate headquarters, so it carries the new public-company costs and most of the extra supply-chain costs from the conflict. The company says it is gaining market share in Saudi Arabia, where 2025 revenue had fallen after a change in its distribution model.
Americas was the standout. Adjusted EBITDA rose 17.2% on 3.4% revenue growth, which the company credits to pricing and "strong cost control." Management expects US revenue growth to speed up to high single digits for the full year.
Europe barely broke even: $0.1M of adjusted EBITDA, down from $1.8M. The company blames steep excise tax rises and weak enforcement against illegal products. Price increases did not make up for the lost volume.
New Growth Categories are still small and loss-making. The segment covers vapes and nicotine pouches (OOKA, and the Crown Switch launch in Europe). Its $7.9M loss was narrower than last year's $9.3M.
Takeaway: Once the listing costs are stripped out, AIR's first half shows price rises doing all the work. A 14.0% price/mix gain balanced a 9.0% volume drop and higher costs, and adjusted EBITDA ended exactly flat at $71.7M. The company has already said H2 pricing will be weaker. That leaves second-half growth depending on volumes recovering as wholesalers restock, which management says began in June but the filing does not yet show in half-year figures.
What the headline numbers hide
Adjusted and reported profit are $124M apart. Reported EBITDA was –$52.1M and adjusted EBITDA was +$71.7M. The largest items added back are $47.7M of listing expenses (sponsor marketing and advisory fees of $32.6M, redemption fees of $4.1M and other advisory, legal and admin fees of $11.0M) and $48.2M for shares issued to the SPAC sponsor at listing, which is an accounting charge with no cash outflow. Both genuinely happen once. Two other add-backs are less clear-cut. $12.4M of share-based pay (up from $1.0M) is labelled one-time, but the company says those charges "will continue to be recognized over the remaining vesting period." $7.4M of "public company readiness" costs are also added back. The company does count the new, ongoing costs of being listed as a headwind to adjusted EBITDA. To its credit, it adjusted only for air freight and above-market glycerin (a key ingredient) in the $3.8M Hormuz item, and kept re-routing and general inflation costs in the underlying figures.
Cash conversion was weak. Operating cash flow was –$0.1M, against $9.0M a year earlier. Before working-capital movements, operations generated $56.9M. That was then absorbed by a $58.8M rise in trade and other receivables (money customers owe). On the balance sheet, receivables rose 37% since December to $127.8M, while half-year revenue grew 3.7%. Part of this is timing, since Q2 was a heavy shipping quarter, and part is a $9.0M temporary excise escrow placed with the Polish tax authorities. The company expects that escrow to unwind in H2. Even so, this is the line to watch: H2 needs those receivables turned into cash.
Cash fell $34.0M in the half to $85.4M. Short-term borrowings rose from $29.9M to $67.3M, and $18.2M sits in a restricted deposit backing a bank guarantee in a UAE legal dispute with a former local sponsor. Net debt was $344.8M, or 2.48 times rolling 12-month adjusted EBITDA. That is already at the company's long-term target of 2.5 times, so it has little room left against that target.
Tax was paid despite the loss. A $3.8M tax charge on a $78.0M pre-tax loss reflects IPO costs that are not deductible under UK tax law. It is not a sign of an underlying tax problem.
Lower interest helped, but that comparison is flattered too. Finance costs fell from $21.6M to $14.4M. The first half of 2025 included a large refinancing, when $405.2M of new borrowing replaced $390.8M of debt repaid. Finance income also dropped from $7.8M to $0.5M, so net financing costs fell much less than the finance-cost line alone suggests.
Share count is harder to read than it looks. About 160.4M shares are outstanding. Around 5M of them sit under a forward purchase agreement with Harraden Circle, a structure that can return unsold shares to the company. Another 8.69M "earnout" shares vest only if the stock trades at $12.50 or $15.00 before May 2031. Loss per share used 144.8M weighted-average shares.
Did last time's read hold up?
This is our first report on AIR Global, and its first results release as a listed company, so there is no earlier outlook to check against.
Outlook
For full-year 2026, management guides to:
Revenue growth of 4%–6%. H1 delivered 3.7%, so the guidance implies a faster second half.
Stable shipment volumes versus 2025. This includes a headwind of about 1.5% from weaker travel retail. Because H1 volumes fell 9.0%, the target needs clear volume growth in H2.
Low- to mid-single-digit adjusted EBITDA growth. That is below the company's usual high single digits, because of public-company costs, faster factory moves to reduce reliance on Hormuz, and higher logistics and raw-material costs. These are partly offset by US tariff refunds and excise duty drawback (refunds of excise tax already paid).
Other items: roughly stable net financing costs and leverage, a tax rate of about 15%, and capital spending of $15–18M. No share buybacks are included in the guidance. Shareholders voted on buyback proposals at an August 24 meeting.
Our read: the H2 case depends on one thing, whether wholesalers restock as quickly as management expects. Price/mix will fade from 14.0% toward the 4–6% range. Flat volumes for the year therefore require roughly high-single-digit volume growth in H2 just to make up for the first half. The June return to growth is a start, but it is a single month. Two other factors could move the numbers. Crown Switch's US launch depends on the FDA accepting its application to sell the product (a PMTA), which AIR plans to file later this year. The $20M Greentank vape-technology investment made in July also needs to pay off. Neither will matter for 2026 revenue. What would change our view sooner is whether receivables come down and operating cash flow recovers in the second half.
Source: AIR Global PLC Form 6-K dated August 20, 2026 (Exhibit 99.1 results release, Exhibit 99.3 shareholder letter, Exhibit 99.4 unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements for the six months ended June 30, 2026). Figures are in US dollars under IFRS. Q1 figures are derived by subtracting the reported three-month columns from the six-month totals.