NEW YORK: General Electric announced a deal Wednesday to sell its aircraft leasing business to AerCap for $30 billion, establishing a new industry giant amid the pandemic-induced downturn in air travel.
Under the transaction, the GE unit will be integrated into the Irish company. GE will have a 46-percent stake in the new entity and will nominate two members to AerCap’s board, the announcement said.
The combined company will have more than 2,000 owned and managed aircraft, more than 300 helicopters and more than 300 customers around the world, AerCap said.
The airline industry remains in a deep downturn due to the coronavirus pandemic, although progress on vaccination campaigns is expected to lead to a gradual rebound.
“As the recovery in air travel gathers pace, this transaction represents a unique opportunity that we believe will create long-term value for our investors,” said AerCap chief executive Aengus Kelly.
GE will receive $24 billion in cash from AerCap as well as shares in the new company worth about $6 billion.
The sale of GE’s Capital Aviation Service (GECAS) hearkens the long-awaited wind-down of the US industrial giant’s once-mighty GE Capital finance arm as Chief Executive Lawrence Culp proceeds with a turnaround after a rocky period.
The remainder of GE Capital will be folded into the parent company, and GE has said it plans to focus on its industrial core of power, renewable energy, aviation and healthcare.
It plans also to reduce debt by around $30 billion, using proceeds from the AerCap transaction and existing cash sources, bringing its total reduction in debt since the end of 2018 to more than $70 billion.
“Today marks GE’s transformation to more focused, simpler and stronger industrial company,” Culp said. AerCap said 60 percent of the combined company’s fleet will be narrow-body aircraft, and these smaller planes also comprise more than 90 percent of the nearly 500 new planes that have been ordered.
Narrow-body planes are expected to be in heavy demand in the early period of the post-Covid-19 recovery in which short-distance flights are likely to bounce back more quickly than international travel.
AerCap reported a profit of $1.1 billion in 2019, but lost $299 million in 2020. Similarly, GECAS notched more than $1 billion in profits in 2019, but lost $786 million last year.
The transaction, subject to approval by shareholders and regulators, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.
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