Air Lease Corporation Announces First Quarter 2014 Results

LOS ANGELES—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Air Lease Corporation (ALC) (NYSE: AL) announced today financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2014.

Highlights

Air Lease Corporation reported another consecutive quarter of fleet, revenue and profitability growth:

Diluted EPS increased 50% to $0.57 per share for the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to $0.38 per share for the three months ended March 31, 2013.
Revenues increased 28% to $246 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to $192 million for the three months ended March 31, 2013.
Income before taxes increased 54% to $95 million with a pretax margin of 39% for the three months ended March 31, 2014 compared to income before taxes of $62 million with a pretax margin of 32% for the three months ended March 31, 2013.
Recorded $15.9 million in gains on aircraft sales, trading and other activity for the three months ended March 31, 2014.
Placed orders for nine additional aircraft from Airbus S.A.S., Avions de Transport Régional and The Boeing Company scheduled to deliver in 2014 through 2017.
Signed forward lease placements with four new airlines further diversifying our global customer base.
On May 5, 2014, we amended our Syndicated Unsecured Revolving Credit Facility increasing the aggregate capacity by $100 million to $2.1 billion and extended the availability period by one year to May 2018.
Completed a senior unsecured notes offering in March 2014, issuing $500 million with a coupon of 3.875%, maturing in 2021.
Our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.03 per share on our outstanding common stock.

“ALC started off 2014 with another record quarter of profitability. Globally, all indications point to continued strength in overall airline financial health, profitability, and better capacity management. The demand from airlines is outpacing ALC’s existing order pipeline of new aircraft and therefore we topped up orders at Airbus, Boeing, and ATR to facilitate customer needs,” said Steven F. Udvar-Házy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Lease Corporation.

“We continue to diversify our portfolio by adding new customers to our fleet with long leases attached. We took advantage of a healthy secondary market for aircraft trading and we sold four mid-life aircraft for gains. The capital markets have remained very receptive to our strengthening credit profile and have allowed us to drive credit spreads tighter with each successive debt issuance,” said John L. Plueger, President and Chief Operating Officer of Air Lease Corporation.

Flight Equipment Portfolio

As of March 31, 2014, we owned 196 aircraft in our operating lease portfolio and we leased the aircraft to a globally diversified customer base of 79 airlines in 47 countries. During the quarter ended March 31, 2014, we delivered five aircraft from our new order pipeline. In addition, we sold two aircraft from our operating lease portfolio during the quarter ended March 31, 2014. As of March 31, 2014, we managed twelve aircraft for third parties.

Debt Financing Activities

We ended the first quarter of 2014 with total debt outstanding of $5.94 billion as compared to $5.85 billion as of December 31, 2013. We have built a globally diversified banking group, which has provided us in excess of $4.3 billion in financing and we have successfully accessed the debt capital markets for $3.8 billion in unsecured financing. We ended the first quarter of 2014 with total unsecured debt outstanding of $4.6 billion compared to $4.3 billion as of December 31, 2013, increasing the Company’s unsecured debt as a percentage of total debt to 77.0% as of March 31, 2014 compared to 73.5% as of December 31, 2013. The Company’s fixed rate debt as a percentage of total debt increased to 69.4% as of March 31, 2014 from 62.0% as of December 31, 2013.

In the first quarter 2014, we raised additional debt financing aggregating $525.0 million, which included $500.0 million in senior unsecured notes due 2021 that bear interest at a rate of 3.875% and $25.0 million in senior unsecured notes due 2024 that bear interest at a rate of 4.85%.

We ended the first quarter of 2014 with a debt to equity ratio of 2.3:1 and available liquidity of $2.1 billion which is comprised of unrestricted cash of $256.1 million and undrawn balances under our warehouse facilities and unsecured revolving credit facilities of $1.8 billion. Our financing strategy remains focused on raising unsecured debt in the global bank and capital markets.