“We are proud to support Aircraft Engine Lease Finance Inc. in enabling the return of an aircraft to the South African Airways fleet,” said John Zama, Director: Structured Asset Finance at Absa Corporate and Investment Banking
Aircraft Engine Lease Finance, Inc. (AELF) announced this week the completion of a $31 million loan with South Africa-based Absa Bank Group.
The loan is collateralised by an A330-300 on lease to South African Airways, which was recently acquired by AELF from a consortium of lenders including Deutsche Bank, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole.
“AELF is actively engaging financing partners around the world, significantly increasing its purchasing power and variety of capital resources,” said Phil Scruggs, AELF Board Member.
Over the last 12 months, AELF has announced substantial borrowings from a number of global lending partners, including Merchants Bank, Investec, Nedbank and now Absa.
“Absa makes a great addition to our stable of lending partners, further empowering AELF to reliably commit to and close deals opportunistically,” said Joe Cirillo, Chief Commercial Officer of AELF. “As we grow our portfolio, maintaining a small and familiar group of capital partners strengthens our ability to capture the anomalous value we identify in the market”
“We are proud to support Aircraft Engine Lease Finance Inc. in enabling the return of an aircraft to the South African Airways fleet,” said John Zama, Director: Structured Asset Finance at Absa Corporate and Investment Banking. “This is a milestone that strengthens regional aviation capacity and supports the broader recovery of the sector. This transaction reflects our ability to deliver bespoke, asset-backed funding solutions in complex, highly regulated industries, while contributing to skills development, job creation, and infrastructure resilience across South Africa’s aviation value chain.”
As a side note, in June this year, Investec announced that it had closed its second transaction with AELF to finance the acquisition of an Airbus A330-200 aircraft, which is on lease to Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. The first transaction, completed in October 2024, involved financing the purchase of a Boeing 737-800 for lease to FlySafair. In March this year, AELF announced the leasing of a third Boeing 737-800 to FlySafair.
