李嘉誠與三菱聯手進軍飛機租賃業

Japan’s biggest trading company and Asia’s richest man have teamed up in an $800m aircraft leasing joint venture, betting that cheap debt and strong demand from low-cost carriers will sustain a multiyear boom.

日本最大貿易公司三菱(Mitsubishi Corp)與亞洲首富李嘉誠將聯手創建一家規模爲8億美元的合資飛機租賃公司。他們認爲，廉價貸款和來自低成本運營商的強大需求將延續飛機租賃熱。

Mitsubishi Corp will get the venture started by selling it 15 of the 79 planes owned by its aviation finance unit, MC Aviation Partners. MCAP, which is wholly-owned by Mitsubishi, will contribute 40 per cent of the venture’s equity, with the remainder coming from Cheung Kong Holdings, the main investment vehicle of Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong-based billionaire.

三菱將首先把旗下航空金融部門MCAP(MC Aviation Partners)擁有的79架飛機中的15架售予該合資公司。MCAP由三菱全資所有，將爲合資公司貢獻40%的股本，剩下的將來自李嘉誠旗下主要投資機構長江實業(Cheung Kong Holdings)。

The planes – new, narrow-body aircraft from Airbus and Boeing – have a combined appraisal value of about $800m, according to MCAP. Assuming that banks provide loans of between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of that value, the partners will contribute equity of $160m to $320m.

MCAP稱，這些飛機的評估價值總計約8億美元，爲空客( Airbus)和波音(Boeing)生產的窄體新飛機。假設新公司能獲得相當於這一評估價值60%至80%的銀行貸款，兩家公司還將出資1.60億美元至3.20億美元。

Within a few years, the aim was to build the venture’s assets to about $5bn, said Hiroshi Nakanishi, general manager of Mitsubishi’s aviation business department. He noted that demand from budget airlines was expected to push the share of leased planes within the global fleet to about half in five to ten years, from 40 per cent now.

三菱航空業務部門總經理Hiroshi Nakanishi表示，新公司的目標是幾年內將資產擴大到50億美元左右。他預計，廉價航空公司的需求將在5到10年內，將租賃飛機佔全球飛機總數的比例從現在的40%推升至一半左右。

“Depending on discussions with Cheung Kong, more planes could be transferred,” Mr Nakanishi said. “But we need to source new planes from the market.”

“根據與長江實業的談判，可能會有更多飛機轉移到新公司，”Hiroshi Nakanishi表示，“但我們需要從市場採購新飛機。”

Mr Li is known for his preference for infrastructure in countries with stable regulatory and common law systems. In August, Cheung Kong said it was in talks to buy a $5bn fleet of 100 aircraft put up for sale by Awas, a European lessor owned by Terra Firma, the private equity group.

李嘉誠多年來一直傾向於在有着穩定監管和普通法體系的國家投資於當地基礎設施。今年8月，長江實業曾表示，正就以50億美元購入歐洲租賃公司Awas拍賣的100架飛機展開談判。Awas由私人股本集團Terra Firma所有。