9 April 2020:BOC Aviation Limited recently announced their operational transactions for the March quarter. Their balance sheet showed an available liquidity of USD 3.6 billion. This strong balance sheet allows BOC to continue working with customers in a difficult environment.
They closed the first quarter with a total portfolio of 567 aircraft comprised of 323 owned, 40 managed and 204 on-order aircraft, the largest ever.
Robert Martin, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer said, "We are pleased to announce an excellent start to 2020. In the first quarter of the year we signed agreements to purchase 48 aircraft, of which 38 have already been placed on long-term leases with the remaining 10 unplaced A320NEO due to be delivered in 2023-4. We have placed all aircraft that are expected to be delivered in 2020 and continue to be disciplined in our aircraft investment approach."
Phang Thim Fatt, Chief Financial Officer added, "During the first quarter, we raised an additional USD 1.3 billion in financing from the loan and bond markets and we repaid more than USD 950 million of bonds on schedule under our Global Medium Term Note ("GMTN") program. We also increased the limit of our GMTN program to USD 15 billion from USD 10 billion, which provides us with the flexibility to continue accessing the debt capital markets for our future funding needs and supports the growth of our business. We continued to access new loan financings in the first quarter and are well-supported by more than 70 banks globally."