Riyadh – Mubasher: AviLease, owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), has closed a $2.50 billion five-year unsecured term facility that mainly will be used to fully refinance a bridge facility it raised in 2023 when acquiring the Standard Chartered aircraft leasing platform.

The funding comprises a conventional facility worth $1.73 billion and a Sharia-aligned facility of $770 million, according to a press release.

As it raised the facility which was 2.7 times oversubscribed, AviLease received substantial interest across the local, regional, and international markets.

Chairman of AviLease, Fahad Al Saif, said: “The strong market response and the diverse profiles of lenders, including our existing lenders joined by new lenders, is another testament to the continuous global confidence in our business model and growth prospects.”

Al Saif noted: “Outside the Bank Market, AviLease will continue to explore a variety of debt funding sources as it delivers on its ambitious strategic objectives which aims to contribute to the development of the aviation ecosystem in the Kingdom.”

Meanwhile, the company reconfirms its plan to expand its fleet with an objective to become among the world’s top 10 aircraft leasing companies by 2030.

From his side, Edward O’Byrne the CEO of AviLease, said that the financing was “supported by a syndicate of banking partners across three continents – a token to the global confidence of banks in AviLease. We thank all our lenders for their continuous support and long-term confidence in AviLease.”

O’Byrne concluded: “It is crucial for us to call on a wide variety of global trusted financial partners with strong balance sheets, who can provide, over the years, continued funding to support our growth objectives.”

It is worth noting that AviLease is a global aircraft lessor headquartered in Riyadh with offices in Dublin, Limerick, Singapore, and Fort Lauderdale.

The PIF’s lessor has a portfolio of 180 owned and managed aircraft representing a book value of $6.50 billion. The Saudi wealth fund launched its aircraft leasing company in 2022 to initially focus on scaling through purchase-and-lease-back transactions with airlines.