AviLease Secures $2.5 Billion in Bridge Loan Refinancing

Saudi Arabia’s aircraft leasing company AviLease, which is a rapidly expanding global aircraft lessor and owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund, on Tuesday announced that it has raised $2.5 billion 5-years unsecured term facility.

The unsecured term facility will be used, inter alia, to fully refinance a bridge facility AviLease raised in 2023 when acquiring the Standard Chartered aircraft leasing platform, AviLease said in a statement.

The financing is structured in 2 parts, a conventional facility of $1.73 billion and a Sharia’ah Compliant facility of $770 million. AviLease received substantial interest across the local, regional and international markets, and was 2.7 times oversubscribed.

AviLease Chairman Fahad Al-Saif, said that the strong market response and the diverse profiles of lenders, including their existing lenders joined by new lenders, is another testament to the continuous global confidence in AviLease’s business model and growth prospects.

He added: “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.”

AviLease CEO Edward O’Byrne, said that they were pleased to announce the successful closing of this USD2.5 billion 5-year unsecured term financing facility, supported by a syndicate of banking partners across 3 continents – a token to the global confidence of banks in AviLease.

It may be recalled that AviLease, closed a $700 million unsecured revolving credit facility in March this year. The dual-currency facility, in USD and SAR (Saudi Riyal), has been secured with four Saudi banks: Alrajhi Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF), Riyad Bank and Saudi Awwal Bank (SAB).

Supporting Growth Objectives

Edward thanked all the lenders for their continuous support and long-term confidence in AviLease. The quality and breadth of demand exceeded the company’s expectations, and he thanked their banking partners for their support in achieving this outcome.

“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,” he added.

The company reconfirms its plan to expand its fleet, as it aims to become one of the world’s top 10 aircraft leasing companies by 2030.

AviLease is a global aircraft lessor headquartered in Riyadh with offices in Dublin, Limerick, Singapore and Fort Lauderdale. AviLease has a portfolio of 180 owned and managed aircraft representing a book value of $6.5 billion.