AerCap Holdings/ILFC deal finalised

American International Group (AIG) has completed its sale of International Lease Finance Corp (ILFC) to Dutch aircraft leasing specialist AerCap Holdings, in a deal worth a total of $7.6bn, to create the world’s largest independent jet-leasing firm.

New York based insurer AIG sold ILFC for $3bn in cash and 97.6m AerCap shares, in the final stage of divesting itself of non-core activity as it seeks to re-build following the financial crisis. The merged business will be run from the Netherlands by the leasing company’s management team.

Robert Benmosche, AIG’s president and chief executive officer, said: “AerCap is a global leader in the aircraft leasing industry, and I believe that this transaction creates a solid partnership for the business and positions it for continued market leadership. However, the aircraft leasing business is not core to our insurance operations, and for this reason we agreed to sell ILFC. I am confident that this sale will have a positive impact on AIG’s liquidity and credit profile, and will enable us to continue to focus on maintaining strong growth and profitability in our insurance operating businesses.”

Benmosche said in the statement: “While the ILFC name will no longer exist, its deep roots and legacy will continue to live on with AerCap.”

The deal sees the Netherlands-based lessor take on an aircraft portfolio and order book to rival that of GE Capital Aviation Services, the industry leader. AerCap now has around $45bn in total assets and a fleet of over 1,300 aircraft compared to GECAS’s fleet of about 1,700 aircraft.

AerCap’s CEO Aengus Kelly (pictured above) said: “AerCap will be a driving force in the industry. As such, we are well positioned to offer our customers on a global basis an unprecedented portfolio of best-in-class aircraft, while providing our shareholders tremendous growth prospects in the coming years. Further, with our new colleagues from ILFC, we are truly excited about the prospects for the combined company with ample liquidity and capital resources to provide future growth to benefit all of our stakeholders.”

The divestiture of ILFC completes a series of sales that AIG began in 2008 to repay its government bailout and focus the company on property-casualty coverage and US life insurance.