SMBC Aviation Capital has reported profit before tax of $319.4 million for the full year to the end of March 2018, an increase of 2.2% compared to the prior-year. Core lease revenue increased by 1.1% to $934 million compared to 2017 with overall income from continuing operations steady at $1.033 billion for the year.
SMBC Aviation’s aircraft related assets now stand at $10.3 billion. During the reporting period, the aircraft lessor sold 50 aircraft from its owned portfolio, including the sale of a 19 aircraft portfolio to Aircastle, with 22 aircraft also sold from its managed portfolio.
In FY2018, SMBC Aviation signed contracts for 43 aircraft on sale and leaseback transactions, and has confirmed that it has 99.95% aircraft utilisation in its owned fleet, which has a weighted average age of 4.5 years.
Shareholders are continuing to inject capital into the business with up to $1 billion expected by 31 March 2019.
During the past 12 months, SMBC Aviation raised $1.4bn of third party finance, which includes $600 million through a primarily Asian syndicated finance, that allowed the lessor to introduce 12 new financing relationships.
“It was a positive year for our sale and leaseback business particularly in Asia and South America where we have continued to execute deals of scale with our long term customers including 10 Boeing MAX 8 aircraft to Aeromexico; 11 Airbus A320 neo aircraft to Avianca and 13 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft to Jet Airways,” says Peter Barrett, CEO, SMBC Aviation Capital. “In the majority of these deals, we have been able to partner with our shareholders to offer PDP financing which has given us competitive advantage.”