Amedeo Air Four Plus (the “Company”), an aircraft acquisition and leasing investment company, was today listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Company intends to acquire initial
aircraft assets of approximately USD 1.1 billion, increasing by up to an additional USD 600 million by year-end 2015, with the scope to acquire further assets in the future.
The Company will buy initially four A380s, which are or will be on lease to Emirates. Two aircraft were delivered to Emirates last year as part of a sale and leaseback transaction with Amedeo. The next two A380s will be acquired in the second half of this year and the Company may further expand its pool of assets later in 2015.
The Company has raised GBP 202 million in equity and USD 800 million in commercial loan facilities, provided by a bank syndicate led by Westpac and Qatar National Bank.
Amedeo holds a strategic co-investment of 5% of the Company’s share capital and acts as the Company’s long-term asset manager.
The Company, which will not be consolidated by Amedeo, offers institutional investors exposure to a listed, long-term aircraft acquisition, financing and leasing investment. The target aircraft acquisitions will be sourced by Amedeo, although the Company has an independent Board of Directors, themselves carrying extensive aviation industry experience, which will review and authorize all future aircraft purchases and lease decisions.
“The Company will enhance our ability to execute transactions in the capital-intensive, large widebody aircraft space and will allow us to deploy additional capital, alongside our own, for our ordered A380 aircraft, manage any new customer concentrations within our portfolio, and expand the scope of our activities to support both new aircraft acquisitions and, in time, potential secondary market opportunities”, said Mark Lapidus, CEO of Amedeo.
Nimrod Capital, Amedeo’s partner in the UK institutional and discretionary investor market, acted as the Company’s Placing Agent and will be the long-term Corporate and Shareholder Adviser.
“Income generating investments backed by A380 aircraft and an outstanding lessee like Emirates are proving very interesting to investors in the current low yield environment. We are delighted to be able to partner up with the Amedeo team again to bring this attractive investment opportunity to UK institutional investors and we look forward to growing the Company in both scope and scale in the years ahead”, commented Marc Gordon, Partner at Nimrod Capital. Herbert Smith Freehills acted as legal advisers to the Company on the placing and admission to the LSE, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy advised the Board of Directors and Norton Rose Fullbright acted on behalf of Amedeo.
The Company’s website is www.aa4plus.com.
Contact Details
Irena Badelska, Head of Business Development and Investor Relations, Amedeo
Irena.Badelska@amedeo.aero, Tel: +44 7595 0555 81
www.amedeo.aero