Fresh on the back of the BOC Aviation ABS last week; on Friday a board meeting at Bank of China, unanimously voted to list up to 40% of Singapore-based aircraft leasing unit BOC Aviation in a partial IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange confirmed. Some 90% of the offering will be available to international investors with 10% held for Hong Kong domestic investors. BOC will continue to hold the majority holding in the lessor.
The funds raised will be used for purchasing new aircraft and supplement working capital.
The statement did not discuss the timing of the share issue or the amount to be raised. BOC Aviation is one of the world's biggest aviation leasing operators. Bank of China in its interim report said the unit owned 236 aircraft and managed 20 other aircraft by the end of June.
BOC Aviation owns close to 240 aircraft with total assets valued in excess of $11.4 billion and net assets of $2.1 billion, and the unit recorded a post-tax profit of $309 million in 2014.
This IPO is sure to cause very serious interest from US and European institutional investors and as such it should go off at a healthy premium. BOC Aviation has one of the most active and effective finance teams in the global leasing market at this time.
Make sure you catch Robert Martin’s Key Note speech at Airline Economics Growth Frontiers Asia-Pacific conference in Hong Kong at 10:10am on November 3, 2015 and the Aviation 100 APAC Awards that evening from 19:15. The Airline Economics Growth Frontiers Hong Kong conference now boasts an extraordinary delegate list with a truly massive APAC airline attendance list, cementing its place alongside AE Dublin as the joint leading aviation finance and leasing conference for airline attendance in the world, while halving costs.