LIMERICK, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Waypoint Leasing (“Waypoint”), the largest independent global helicopter leasing company, today announced that it has extended the maturity on two of its existing revolving credit facilities. In aggregate over $390m of revolving credit commitments extended across seven lenders, with over $100 million now maturing in late 2019 and over $280 million in late 2020. The company will use the proceeds to support its aircraft order program and to continue to facilitate efficient closings and financing solutions for its customers.
Ed Washecka, CEO of Waypoint, said, “Waypoint appreciates this endorsement of our business model from our financing partners. These transactions increase our financial flexibility and come at a time when we are seeing some level of recovery in our markets. This gives us further power to support our operator customers in exploiting that trend through our appetite for sale-and-leaseback transactions, or from our order book, or from the cost-effective solutions we provide through remarketing our inventory. Reducing asset risk and enhancing liquidity through Waypoint gives our operator partners more time and resource to focus fully on offering quality service to customers.”
Alan Jenkins, CFO & COO of Waypoint added, “We are very excited and appreciative of the commitment our lending partners have demonstrated to us and the industry overall. The revolver extensions provide additional liquidity and runway to Waypoint, to facilitate ongoing support to our customer base while further extending our debt maturity profile, as we successfully navigate through the current challenging market conditions.”
To date, Waypoint has accessed secured and unsecured financings in the bank, export credit and debt capital markets. Waypoint’s acquired fleet of 147 aircraft has 31 lessees, operating in 31 countries, with total assets in excess of $1.6 billion. Waypoint has firm and option orders with aircraft manufacturers for helicopters valued at more than $1.3 billion comprised primarily of Light Twin to super Medium positions focused on a variety of end-user markets, in particular the EMS and Utility marketplace.
About Waypoint Leasing
Waypoint Leasing is a global helicopter leasing company that provides operating lease and financing solutions to helicopter operators worldwide. Headquartered in Limerick, Ireland, Waypoint Leasing differentiates itself with a senior management team that has direct helicopter operating and leasing experience in key helicopter markets around the world, having leased helicopters across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North and South America. Waypoint Leasing serves a wide range of sectors including oil and gas, emergency medical service, search and rescue, firefighting and governmental support. Further information is available at www.waypointleasing.com.
