Dubai: Investec Bank’s aviation finance arm announced on Monday the closing of a $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) operating lease transaction with Emirates airline for four A380 superjombos.
The $1 billion transaction has facilitated the delivery and sale and leaseback of four A380-800s to Emirates over the past four months.
The aircraft involved include 2013 and 2016 vintages. Investec Aviation Finance has acquired the 2013 vintages aircraft from Stellwagen Finance, the holding company for Aviation Finance Company (AFC). The 2016 deliveries are new deliveries direct from Airbus.
Investec was the sole arranger for both the financing and leasing elements of this transaction. Financings are provided by banks and institutional investors across Middle East, Europe and Asia, the company said in a statement. The company has also put in place Islamic financing on two of the deliveries.
Investec Aviation Finance has around $5 billion of aircraft assets under management through its own balance sheet and managed funds. Investec also owns a 20 per cent stake in Dublin-based Goshawk, along with Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and NWS Holdings. Goshawk is a joint venture leasing platform set up by Investec in 2013, with an owned or committed portfolio of 75 young, in-production aircraft, valued at approximately $3.2 billion.
Nirmal Govindadas, Senior Vice-President Corporate Treasury for Emirates, said in a statement the airline “will continue to tap into innovative funding opportunities, maintaining our well-diversified financing portfolio to support our growing fleet.”
