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.
日本最大贸易公司三菱(Mitsubishi Corp)与亚洲首富李嘉诚将联手创建一家规模为8亿美元的合资飞机租赁公司。他们认为，廉价贷款和来自低成本运营商的强大需求将延续飞机租赁热。
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.

三菱将首先把旗下航空金融部门MCAP(MC Aviation Partners)拥有的79架飞机中的15架售予该合资公司。MCAP由三菱全资所有，将为合资公司贡献40%的股本，剩下的将来自李嘉诚旗下主要投资机构长江实业(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称，这些飞机的评估价值总计约8亿美元，为空客( Airbus)和波音(Boeing)生产的窄体新飞机。假设新公司能获得相当于这一评估价值60%至80%的银行贷款，两家公司还将出资1.60亿美元至3.20亿美元。
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.
三菱航空业务部门总经理Hiroshi Nakanishi表示，新公司的目标是几年内将资产扩大到50亿美元左右。他预计，廉价航空公司的需求将在5到10年内，将租赁飞机占全球飞机总数的比例从现在的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.”
“根据与长江实业的谈判，可能会有更多飞机转移到新公司，”Hiroshi Nakanishi表示，“但我们需要从市场采购新飞机。”
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.
李嘉诚多年来一直倾向于在有着稳定监管和普通法体系的国家投资于当地基础设施。今年8月，长江实业曾表示，正就以50亿美元购入欧洲租赁公司Awas拍卖的100架飞机展开谈判。Awas由私人股本集团Terra Firma所有。