ACG launched its AFS Program in March 2018, which focuses on the development and marketing of credit-enhanced financing structures to provide airline customers more alternatives and greater access to additional sources of capital for aircraft purchases. The AFS funding facility was structured by Crédit Agricole, and the initial $650 million commitment was provided by a syndicate of ACG’s relationship banks including Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, Caixa Bank, and Crédit Industriel et Commercial Bank. The facility has an accordion feature that enables ACG to increase the amount of the facility to $1 billion. “As a compliment to the ACG guarantee product, the funding facility enabled ACG to expand its aircraft financing program at the height of the pandemic when bank lending for aircraft finance had moderated and, in some cases, withdrawn entirely,” said Bob Roy, Managing Director of ACG. “Through the facility, we have been able to remain engaged with our customers and offer certainty of execution and attractive terms during a period of great uncertainty.”
In December 2020, ACG closed a $500 million three-year loan with Mizuho Bank, which was supported by an Overseas Untied Loan Insurance policy from Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (“NEXI”), the official export credit agency of Japan. Tokyo Century Corporation helped arrange, lead, and support the transaction, which represented a true cross-border collaboration between teams from NEXI, Tokyo Century, ACG and Mizuho in Japan and in the USA. This financing is the first NEXI facility provided to an aviation leasing company or to any pure-play leasing company. “The teams at Tokyo Century and NEXI were quite visionary and forward-thinking in identifying this unique opportunity to utilize Japanese ECA financing to support Tokyo Century’s core holdings in ACG,” says Eric Blau, SVP, Treasurer & Head of Capital Markets at ACG. “This deal also demonstrated the high level of coordination that exists among Tokyo Century, ACG, and the Mizuho New York and Tokyo teams.”
The award winners were decided by an industry survey sent out to a global distribution list of more than 10,000 names over a two-month period. The results are subject to strict criteria and the deals of the year awards are also determined by an extensive nomination process.
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