As the rise of Uber threatens Canberra's taxi industry, one man stands to lose more than anyone. Deregulation of the industry has taxi-plate owners despairing about the value of their investments, but if Aerial's shares take a hit it is Ricky Simatupang who would feel the impact.
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He is understood to hold about 450,000, or one-quarter, of Aerial's 1.8 million shares, and as such is the biggest shareholder by far.
Next is John McKeough, but his shareholding is well under 5 per cent of the taxi company.
Shares have traded most recently at about $3 each, after a selling consistently for $5 or more in 2005.
Mr Simatupang declined to comment for this story.
Aerial originally operated as a cooperative, with the owners of the 215 perpetual taxi plates given about 8550 shares for each plate (adding to about 1.8 million shares). When Aerial became a company, the shares became tradeable more widely.
As a result, about half the 139 shareholders don't own taxi plates, according to Aerial managing director Mark Bramston. Mr Bramston said shareholders were not confined to Canberra but lived around the country and overseas. And he said shares were divided roughly half and half between plate owners and non-owners.
Mr Simatupang owns plates, as does Mr McKeough, who owns three plates and is also chairman of the Canberra Taxi Industry Association.
Mr McKeough was one of a number of owners who staked their retirement on their taxi investments.
It is unclear what impact the deregulation of the ACT taxi industry on November 1 will have on the value of Aerial shares and plates.
Aerial's website lists four packs of shares for sale at the moment, totalling 31,585 shares. Asking prices range from $3.50 to $4, but sales this year suggest a price closer to $3. That is well down on the $5 or more paid in 2005.
Plates are listed for sale from $235,000 to $300,000, and the Aerial website suggests at least six plates have sold through the site this year, one as recently as September, just weeks ahead of deregulation and the arrival of Uber. The September plate sold for $230,000.
Taxi plate owners say their investment has been greatly devalued with the government's decision to slash the amount it charges for leased plates.
About 95 taxi plates are leased from the government rather than owned privately. Until November 1, the government was charging $20,000 a year, which effectively set the price that owners could charge operators to lease their plates as well. But on November 1, the government cut its price in half, to $10,000 a year, and in a year's time it will cut the price again, to $5000.
Mr Bramston said there was too much uncertainty and too many unresolved issues to draw a conclusion about the value of shares and plates. While neither had sold since deregulation to his knowledge, he knew of leases being renewed at prices not substantially below previous prices.
Aerial has invested well beyond Canberra in recent years, buying Taxis Palmerston North in New Zealand, as well as extending its taxi dispatch system into New Zealand. Aerial's business names include Canberra Elite, Canberra Cabs, Canberra Silver Service and Queanbeyan Elite, among others.
The government has set up a steering committee including industry representatives, the union and community groups, to look new rules for driver training, security cameras and other issues.
