Yangtze River Express, part of Hainan Airlines and China Airlines, has closed a finance lease with ICBC Leasing for two 747-400SFs. DVB is sole arranger and is providing a bridge loan facility. The lease term is for 10 years. One aircraft was delivered in November and the other will be delivered before the end of December. The aircraft were acquired from All Nippon Airways and converted by Bedek in Israel. DVB financed the conversion. Junhe Law represented ICBC Leasing and Hainan's internal lawyers advised Yangtze River Express. Hainan has a 51% stake in Yangtze River Express; Taiwanese carrier China Airlines has 25%. Two Taiwanese shipping companies own the remainder. Johnny Lau, managing director global head of aviation finance, ICBC Leasing, says the deal is significant because it is the first time that a Chinese financial institution has provided lending to a Taiwanese-invested airline. The transaction brings ICBC'S fleet up to 14 and comes after a finance lease deal with Shenzhen Airlines for two 737-300s and two 737-700s earlier in 2008. Speaking at the 9th Annual Asia-Pacific Airfmance Conference in Hong Kong, Cong Lin, chief executive officer, ICBC Leasing, said the cargo market is of key strategic importance to the global economy.
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