Lease & Lease/Purchase Finance (Aircraft & Helicopters)

Trevor van der Merwe & Denis Winternitz head up this department

LEASE PURCHASE – INDICATIVE TERMS – SUBJECT TO CONTRACT
The key point of this proposal is that we are not the financiers. We collect the data required and present it as a “package deal” of aircraft and funding. If the application is rejected, for any reason, we are not responsible. Also, we supply and operate the asset, the finance is only available for aircraft purchased from us.

Any offer will follow these indicative lines:

• The finance offer is a DRY LEASE / PURCHASE. The deposit is refundable at the end of the lease period, after which the lessee (buyer) takes ownership of the SPV company which owns the asset. This can be VERY useful to most buyers. A wet lease ACMI can also be quoted upon request.
• A deposit depending on the type of aircraft, YOM, jurisdiction to be registered in, proposed operator, and risk profile of the registration country and the buyer etc.
• The aircraft will be owned in an IoM/BVI company (SPV) and the buyer will purchase the shares in the SPV at the end of the lease term;
• For the period of the purchase, the aircraft will be leased to the buyer;
• Upon final payment, 100% of the shares in the Company will be transferred to the buyer;
• The aircraft can be registered pretty much anywhere, within reason;
• The period can be from 3-15 years. There is no balloon payment option;
• The maintenance reserves for heavy inspections, engine restoration, etc. is paid to the SPV. Upon completion, this money is an asset within the SPV;

The engagement fees for the financier which includes the setup of the SPV, the legal fees and the aircraft evaluation is £30,000 and is paid upon acceptance of the basic funding terms (so after KYC, Risk assessment etc.)

Our Services

Our asset finance and leasing expertise is developed not only through transactional work but also through product development sessions with banks and other financial intermediaries. Our expertise encompasses domestic and cross-border structures and extends to project finance, securitisations, debt repackagings and cross-border issues of securities having the characteristics of both debt and equity and PFI.

The following are some of the areas in which we regularly advise:

Leveraged Leasing
Following the demise of most crossborder leveraged lease structures in recent years, few tax structured products remain available; we advise on the structuring and documenting of French leveraged leases and we have substantial experience of domestic and cross-border tax lease transactions involving aircraft and rolling stock.

Japanese Leases
We document and advise on limited recourse structured Japanese operating leases which remain a significant source of cross-border aviation financing.

Private Finance Initiative
We are actively involved in ground breaking financing structures for the largest military procurement programmes in various European jurisdictions.

Securitisation
In a fast changing industry where large industrial operators tend to raise finance more and more from the capital markets, as opposed to traditional loan based facilities, we use our combined expertise in asset finance and capital markets to design innovative structures involving the issuance of asset backed securities.

Export Credit Agencies
We have been involved in a wide range of export credit financing.

Operating Leases
We represent various major operating lessors from the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific in connection with the leasing of commercial aircraft and aircraft engines.

Vendor Programs
We regularly advise major financing companies in relation to pan-European vendor programs involving the financing or re-financing of large inventories and trade receivables for a wide variety of small to medium ticket equipment.

For any wet lease (ACMI) finance or dry lease finance – please email