SEC Company Response from CHC HELICOPTER CORP (CIK 0000903124) — Apr 8, 2005
CHC HELICOPTER CORP (CIK 0000903124)
Date: April 8, 2005 · CIK: 0000903124 · Accession: 0001279569-05-000238
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CORRESP
1
filename1.htm
Corresp
April 7,
2005
Amy
Geddes
United States
Securities and Exchange Commission
450 Fifth
Street N.W.
Washington,
D.C.
20549-0305
CHC
Helicopter
Corporation
4740
Agar Drive
Richmond,
BC
Canada
V7B
1A3
T
604.276.7500
F
604.279.2460
www.chc.ca
ISO
9001:2000
FS
62776
Re: CHC
Helicopter Corporation
Form 20-F for
the Year Ended April 30, 2004
Commission File
Number: 1-31472
Second
Response
Dear
Ms. Geddes:
Further
to your correspondence dated March 23, 2005 please find enclosed our
response to the issues raised.
Form
20-F
Investing
Activities, page 77
Issue
1. We
note your response to our previous comment 7, but are still unclear
as to the nature of the $3.8 million. As such, please supplementally
explain to us the nature of this asset, and consider revising your
disclosure to include a discussion of this amount.
Response
1. The
Company’s reinsurance subsidiary assets include cash reserved for
insurance operations and claim reserves. This cash is not available for
current operations and as such has been classified as “Other assets” in
accordance with Canadian GAAP (Section 3000) and US GAAP (B05.107 and
ARB 43, Ch. 3A, ¶6). In future filings this and similar items
will be separately disclosed in the appropriate note to the financial
statements.
Page
2
Revenue
Recognition
Issue
2.
Refer
to our previous comment 11. Based on our understanding of PBH
contracts, it is unclear to us why you consider repair and overhaul events
performed to be revenue generating events if these repair and overhaul
services are performed on aircraft owned by you and are necessary to
continue flight operations. Also, as these services are necessary for your
continued use of the aircraft in your business, they do not appear to have
value to the customer on a stand alone basis, and therefore do not meet
the bifurcation requirements of EITF 00-21. Please explain to us why
you believe repair and overhaul events on planes operated under PBH
contracts constitute revenue earning events.
Response
2.
Our
repair and overhaul division performs services for a number of external
customers with total revenue from these customers totalling
$58.1 million in fiscal 2004. Our response to your original question
was related to revenue generated from external customers and we believe
the bifurcation requirements of EITF 00-21 are achieved on revenue
realized from these customers as noted in our original response. As noted
below in our response to your third question, repair and overhaul revenue
from internal customers is eliminated on consolidation.
Issue
3.
Refer
to our previous comment 11. We note that, on page 127 of your
Form 20-F, your discussion of revenue recognition for engine and
component repair and overhaul services indicates that a portion of this
revenue is recognized on a monthly basis to reflect ongoing services, and
the balance is recognized when the major repair and overhaul activities
are completed. We also note that you capitalize and amortize the costs of
these services to amortization and/or operating expense. Please tell us
how much revenue is recognized monthly both in actual dollars and as a
percent of total overhaul revenue, and how your recognition policies for
revenues and for expenses result in proper
matching.
Page
3
Response
3.
Our
repair and overhaul segment reported a total of $193.6 million of
revenue for fiscal 2004 (an average of $16.1 million per month). Of
this amount, $58.1 million was generated from external customers,
which is included in our consolidated revenues of $733.7 million for
the year. Repair and overhaul revenue primarily consists of major
component overhaul revenue and revenue associated with ongoing repairs of
major components and maintenance of non-major components (“routine
maintenance”). On average, approximately 50% of revenue received from PBH
contracts is deferred for future major component
overhauls.
A
proper matching of revenues and expenses for repair and overhaul
activities is achieved by the following means:
a)
Major
component overhauls (external customers)
Amounts
invoiced to third-party customers on PBH contracts in relation to future
major component overhaul work is deferred until the work is performed at a
later date. When the major component (e.g. engine) is received from the
customer at a later date, costs (labour, parts, subcontract and other
costs) are incurred as the major component is repaired and overhauled.
Deferred revenue is then released to the income statement in recognition
of the work performed and a proper matching of revenue to costs incurred
is achieved.
b)
Non-major
component maintenance and ongoing repairs of major components (external
customers)
Costs
to provide these services are incurred on a regular and continuous basis.
The portion of revenue not deferred for major component overhauls (under
the residual value method) is recognized as revenue on a straight line
basis and matched against costs incurred to provide routine maintenance
services and repairs.
Revenue
associated with services performed by the repair and overhaul segment for
internal customers is eliminated upon consolidation so that only revenue
from external customers is included in our results.
In
future filings we will revise our disclosure to explain separately our
revenue recognition policy on repair and overhaul work completed for
external customers and our expense recognition policy for work completed
on owned assets.
Page
4
Issue
4.
Refer
to our prior comment 16. Please revise your disclosure to indicate
these guarantees are in the form of letters of
credit.
Response
4.
In
future filings we will revise our disclosure to indicate these guarantees
are in the form of letters of credit.
Page
5
Issue
5.
We
note your response to our previous comment 24. Please tell us the
facts and circumstances differing in the analysis performed by the third
party versus that performed by you in determining the original useful
life, and the specific new information learned or events occurring leading
to the conclusion that, going forward, the useful life of these assets has
now changed. Please also tell us the facts and circumstances leading you
to employ the services of a third party to estimate aircraft values, and
why this was considered necessary now and not in performing the initial
assessment of useful life.
Response
5.
We
continually review our estimate of the useful lives of aircraft as we gain
knowledge and experience from the operation of aircraft in our fleet and
as new information is acquired from third party advisors. It is the
Company’s practice to employ third party advisors to estimate aircraft
values, assist in our estimate of useful lives and provide other
information relevant to our fleet. There is no difference in the analysis
performed by us and our advisors in determining either the original or
revised useful life estimates. Recently a number of factors have indicated
that a change in our useful life estimate on some aircraft types was
appropriate. These factors include:
•
the
appraisal surplus (excess of market or fair value over book value) of our
aircraft totalled approximately $102.3 million at April 30, 2004
indicating that third parties expect our aircraft on average to be capable
of serving customers for many years to come. As well, in most
circumstances, we continue to realize significant gains on the sale of
aircraft when disposed;
•
a
high proportion of heavy and medium aircraft fleet (91% at April 30,
2004) are operating in developed environments (North Sea and
elsewhere). These aircraft are maintained under comprehensive
“nose-to-tail” repair programs which has assisted in extending the useful
life of some aircraft;
•
the
ability to expand applications for our aircraft through major
modifications has in some cases expanded the service life of aircraft;
and
•
as
the Company has diversified geographically in international markets to
service new customers, our ability to redeploy aircraft originally
operating in “tier one” environments to other markets and locations has
increased. This has translated into an increase in the useful life of some
aircraft.
Page
6
We
trust that the above responses are adequate, however should you require any
further clarification please feel free to contact the undersigned. We would also
request that you use the contact information detailed below in future
correspondence.
Yours
truly,
Rick
Davis
Vice
President, Financial Reporting
CHC
Helicopter Corporation
4740
Agar Drive
Richmond,
B.C.
Canada
V7B
1A3
Phone:
(604) 279 2471
Fax:
(604) 276 2460
Mobile:
(778) 999 0314
cc: Jo Mark
Zurel, Chief Financial Officer, CHC