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AerCap enters into USD2.6 billion purchase and leaseback agreement with LATAM Airlines Group for 25

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29-May-2013 AerCap enters into USD2.6 billion purchase and leaseback agreement with LATAM Airlines Group for 25 widebody aircraft

AerCap Holdings N.V. (NYSE: AER) today announced that it has entered into a $2.6 billion purchase and leaseback agreement with LATAM Airlines Group ("LATAM") for 25 widebody aircraft, with deliveries scheduled between 2013 and 2017. The aircraft consist of nine new Airbus A350-900s, four new Boeing 787-9s, and two new Boeing 787-8s from LATAM's order backlog, and ten Airbus A330-200s with an average age of four years. The appraised value of the 25 aircraft is approximately $3 billion.

AerCap will purchase the aircraft from LATAM Airlines Group and immediately lease them back to LATAM. AerCap expects to finance the aircraft with a combination of funding from the capital markets, the bank markets, and its existing warehouse facility.

"AerCap is delighted to have completed this landmark transaction with LATAM Airlines Group, one of the global leaders of the airline industry and one of AerCap's most prestigious customers for over 20 years," said AerCap's CEO Aengus Kelly. "This transaction provides AerCap with an attractive opportunity to expand our widebody portfolio with the most in-demand, new technology aircraft and to place them on long-term leases to one of the world's leading airlines. The agreement with LATAM Airlines Group is evidence of the increasing opportunities we are seeing for large-scale transactions as many airlines begin to take delivery of the significant orders placed at the beginning of this decade and use operating leasing as a key financing tool."