Amedeo Air Four sells two A380s – In a surprise move, Amedeo Air Four Plus has announced that is selling two A380-800 aircraft bearing manufacturer’s serial numbers 233 and 237 to Etihad Airways PJSC. After repayment of the current financing arrangements on the aircraft, the determination of swap breakage and facility prepayment costs together with transaction costs, fees and expenses, the company currently expects the aggregate net cash proceeds will be in the region of £130m.
The board will let us know what it intends to do with the money in due course.
[This is big news in a market that has been starved of deals in recent years. It might illustrate that Etihad sees a long-term future for these planes within its fleet and provide encouragement to investors in the older plane leasing funds. These are newer models, however.]
Update 25 February
There isn’t a lot more information in today’s announcement of the completion of the sale. Transaction costs, fees and expenses (including the cost of breaking interest rate swaps and prepayment penalties for paying back the loan early), amounted to £5.1m.
The company still owns six A380-800 and two B777-300ER (leased to Emirates) and four A350-900 aircraft (leased to Thai Airways). The announcement cautions against assuming that they can sell the other A380 aircraft at all, let alone for the same price.
Aircraft 233 was bought on 24 March 2017 and 237 was bought on 24 May 2017. The company didn’t disclose the purchase price for these aircraft but it bought them using the £130m it raised in January of that year (plus debt). Amedeo paid out 8.25p in dividends each year on the £130m it raised and now has its money back. The board hasn’t made up its mind what to do with the £130.86m that it is freeing up from the sale but it will let us know.
AA4 : Amedeo Air Four sells two A380s
I am guessing the debt was at most 25% paid off on these planes, so purchase price must have been over $200m (obviously structured to break the lease terms though).
Unfortunately the announcement is a bit light on detail, although more is promised on or after 24 February when the deal closes – we’ll update on the story then