Airplane Lesing World is reduced with $ 7.4 billion of air lease acquisition

Airplane lease signature Air leaseFounded by the Steven Udvar-Házy industry magnate, it agreed to sell in an agreement that would take it privately to a group of investors for $ 7.4 billion, marking more consolidation in the aircraft housing business.

The planned acquisition, announced on Tuesday, was directed by the Sumitomo and SMBC Aviation Capital of Japan, and also includes asset administrators Apollo and Brookfield. Shareholders in Los Angeles air lease would receive $ 65 per share, a premium of almost 8% at the close of Friday. Including debt, investors are valuing the company at approximately $ 28.2 billion.

The landlords rent airlines airplanes, helping those carriers to conserve cash that would otherwise have to use to buy airplanes that can cost more than $ 100 million each at list prices. The shortage of aircraft in recent years, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, the problems of the supply chain and other decelerations, has taken rent rates to the records for both new and previous models.

The airplane lease business, which has more than half of the world's passenger aircraft fleet, has grown from a property participation of 51% in 2009 to a 58% participation currently, according to the Aviation Consulting firm was Group. He has not seen more growth because some large airlines became profitable, which allows them to have many of their planes.

“The cash is no longer alien to these guys,” said Stuart Hatcher, chief economist of Iba Group.

At the same time, many airlines are now rethinking their capacity plans, since an excess of flight supply has weighed the rates and eaten their earnings this year. At the extreme end, Spirit Airlines requested on Friday the bankruptcy protection of chapter 11 for the second time in less than a year after it failed to make important changes the first time and arose with high costs and a fall in demand.

The private-private agreement underlines a wave of consolidation in the industry and will help companies increase their scale. Air Lease finished the second quarter with 495 aircraft in its property fleet.

Including its accumulation, Air Lease is the fifth largest aircraft lessor, according to a count of Iba. The parties expect the agreement to close in the first half of 2026. The new company will have its headquarters in Dublin.

“It makes a lot of sense when you consider it … the cheapest way to buy market growth,” said the Hatcher de Iba.

The acquisition of air lease is the last of a series of offers.

General Electric He sold his airplane lease arm to the landlord of airplanes No. 1 Aercap In 2021, when the conglomerate revolved the units to focus on the main companies such as the manufacture of aircraft engines.

Two years ago, Standard Chartered agreed to sell his air lease business to Avilase, which is owned by the Sovereign Fund of Saudi Arabia.

Often called the “godfather” of the lease of aviation, Udvar-Házy founded the air lease in 2010, working closely with the CEO of Air Lease John Plueger.

“Since he founded the air lease in 2010, we have been unwavering in our mission to shape the future of the aviation industry and provide airlines worldwide access to the most modern and efficient aircraft in fuel,” said Udvar-Házy on Tuesday.

Udvar-Házy, who fled from Hungary Soviet with his parents at the end of the 1950s, has had a love for life for aviation has often been credited with the creation of the business lease business. He co -founded his previous lease, later known as ILFC, in 1973, and later sold to AIG. He continued to administer until 2010 and announced his withdrawal from air lease last March.