AerCap announces purchase and lease-back agreement for 25 LATAM widebody aircraft
AerCap announced (29-May-2013) a purchase and lease-back agreement with LATAM Airlines Group for 25 widebody aircraft, worth USD2.6 billion. The deal is for nine new A350-900s, four new Boeing 787-9s, and two new 787-8s from LATAM's order backlog, in addition to ten A330-200s with from LATAM's existing fleet with an average age of four years. The purchase and lease-back of the ten A330-200s will occur in Jun-2013, with the new aircraft to be delivered between 2014 and 2018 at an average of three aircraft per year. AerCap intends to finance the aircraft's purchase with a combination of funding from capital markets, bank markets, and its existing warehouse facility. AerCap CEO Aengus Kelly said: "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." [more - original PR - I] [more - original PR - II]