NAIROBI: African operator Kenya Airways has mandated financing of its final three Boeing 787 deliveries to AWAS through a sale-and-leaseback transaction.
The first unit, MSN 36044, was delivered today, confirms the lessor. Flightglobal’s Ascend Fleets database shows that the remaining two deliveries are scheduled for July and August.
The three 787s were initially mandated to African Export-Import Bank in 2012 as part of $1.9 billion funding package comprising nine Boeing 787-8s, one 777-300ER and 10 Embraer 190s. The funding package included pre-delivery payments along with an aircraft delivery finance facility.
The Cairo-based institution acted as global co-ordinator in the transaction, which comprised a senior tranche guaranteed by the US Export-Import Bank plus a commercial tranche.
Afreximbank also acted as the arranger and underwriter of the commercial tranche, while Citigroup Global Markets and JP Morgan Chase were the arrangers for the senior Ex-Im-guaranteed tranche.The transaction marks AWAS’s first 787 acquisitions.
“This marks a milestone for AWAS, our first of many planned new-technology aircraft acquisitions with these three Boeing 787-8s,” says AWAS chief executive Ray Sisson.
