South Africa’s Imperial Holdings said on Wednesday it had teamed up with financial services group Sanlam to form an aviation financing company with a funding capacity of at least R5-billion.
It said in a statement that the company had already signed a $50-million agreement with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to finance existing aircraft.
This is in addition to the 80-million euro contract that Imperial signed with DHL International earlier this year.
”Our aviation business has shown considerable growth in recent years and it has been our determination to expand the business further to take advantage of what we believe is an exciting opportunity,” said Imperial CE Bill Lynch.
”We are in a unique position to develop the aviation business here in South Africa as our costs are rand-based and lease contracts tend to be dollar or euro-based.”
Imperial’s business operations range from financial services, logistics to aviation leasing. – Reuters