ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Unless the context suggests otherwise, references in this report to “Aircastle,” the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our” refer to Aircastle Limited and its subsidiaries. References in this report to “AL” refer only to Aircastle Limited. References in this report to “Aircastle Bermuda” refer to Aircastle Holding Corporation Limited and its subsidiaries. Throughout this report, when we refer to our aircraft, we include aircraft that we have transferred into grantor trusts or similar entities for purposes of financing such assets through securitizations and term financings. These grantor trusts or similar entities are consolidated for purposes of our financial statements. All amounts in this report are expressed in U.S. dollars and the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“US GAAP”).
We acquire, lease, and sell commercial jet aircraft with large, global operator bases and long useful lives. As of December 31, 2014, our aircraft portfolio consisted of 148 aircraft leased to 54 lessees located in 34 countries. Our aircraft fleet is managed by an experienced team based in the United States, Ireland and Singapore. Typically, our aircraft are subject to net leases whereby the lessee is generally responsible for maintaining the aircraft and paying operational, maintenance and insurance costs arising during the term of the lease. We also may occasionally make investments in other aviation assets, including debt investments secured by commercial jet aircraft. As of December 31, 2014, the net book value of our flight equipment and finance lease aircraft was $5.69 billion compared to $5.19 billion at the end of 2013. Our revenues and net income for the year ended December 31, 2014 were $818.6 million and $100.8 million respectively, and for the fourth quarter 2014 were $238.3 million and $72.8 million, respectively.
Growth in commercial air traffic is broadly correlated with world economic activity, and has been expanding at a rate one to two times the rate of global GDP growth. The expansion of air travel has driven a rise in the world aircraft fleet. There are currently more than 18,000 commercial mainline passenger and freighter aircraft in operation worldwide. This fleet is expected to continue expanding at an average annual rate of three to five percent per annum over the next 20 years. In addition, aircraft leasing companies own an increasing share of the world’s commercial jet aircraft, and now account for approximately 40% of this fleet.
Notwithstanding the sector’s long-term growth, the aviation markets have been, and are expected to remain, subject to economic variability on a global basis and regional basis, as well as to changes in macroeconomic relations such as fuel price levels and exchange rates. The industry is susceptible to external shocks, such as regional conflicts, terrorist events and to disruptions caused by severe weather events and other natural phenomena. Mitigating these risks is the portability of the assets, allowing aircraft to be redeployed in locations where demand is higher.
Air traffic data for 2014 showed a continued strong trend in passenger market growth. Air cargo traffic showed slow improvement as world trade and economic growth increased. According to the International Air Transport Association, during 2014 global passenger traffic increased by 5.9% and air cargo traffic increased by 4.5% as compared to the same period in 2013. Passenger traffic growth was strong, driven by rising economic growth and business confidence. The air cargo market, which is more sensitive than the passenger sector to economic conditions, appears to have stabilized after weak performances between 2011 and 2013. The air cargo market continues to be hampered by persistent overcapacity.
There are significant regional variations in both passenger and air cargo demand. Emerging market economies have been experiencing significant increases in air traffic, driven by rising levels of per capita air travel. Air traffic in other regions is being driven by long-term structural changes in global traffic flows, particularly the growth in long-haul "hub and spoke" traffic flowing through the Persian Gulf. In contrast, mature markets such as North America and Western Europe are likely to grow more slowly in tandem with their economies. Finally, airlines operating in areas with political instability or where there are geopolitical conflicts, such as Russia, have seen more modest growth and their outlook is more uncertain. Periodic health concerns, such as the recent Ebola virus outbreak, may also play a role in the near-term development of air traffic in certain regions. However, in aggregate, we believe that passenger and cargo traffic will likely increase over time, and as a result, we expect demand for modern, fuel efficient aircraft will continue to remain strong over the long-term.
Capital availability for aircraft has varied over time, and we consider this variability to be a basic characteristic of our business. However, both debt and equity markets improved globally over the past several years with the recovery from the recent global financial crisis. Strong U.S. debt capital markets conditions benefited certain borrowers by permitting access to financing at historic lows while higher fees have driven down export credit agency ("ECA") demand. Commercial bank debt continues to play a critical role in the air finance market with traditional aviation lenders, along with a number of new entrants, providing capacity to top tier airlines and lessors, although we believe regulatory pressures have limited the extent
of the bank market's recovery. We believe these market forces should generate attractive new investment and trading opportunities upon which we are well placed to capitalize given our access to the U.S. capital markets. Over the longer term, our strategy is to achieve an investment grade credit rating, which we believe will reduce our borrowing costs and enable more reliable access to debt capital throughout the business cycle.
We intend to pay quarterly dividends to our shareholders based on the Company’s sustainable earnings levels; however, our ability to pay quarterly dividends will depend upon many factors, including those described in Item 1A.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
In addition to the other information set forth in this report, you should carefully consider the following factors, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations or ability to pay dividends in future periods or to meet our debt obligations. The risks described below are not the only risks facing our Company. Additional risks not currently known to us or that we currently deem to be immaterial also may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations or ability to pay dividends in future periods.
Risks Related to Our Business
Risks Related to Our Operations
Volatile financial market conditions may adversely impact our liquidity, our access to capital and our cost of capital and may adversely impact the airline industry and the financial condition of our lessees.
The financial crisis that began in the second half of 2008 resulted in significant global market volatility and disruption and a lack of liquidity. While these conditions have stabilized and many segments of the capital markets have improved substantially since the first quarter of 2009, the availability and pricing of capital in the commercial bank market and in the unsecured bond market remain susceptible to global events, including, for example, the recent decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve to begin tapering its asset purchase program and concerns over China's economy and banking system. If we need, but cannot obtain, adequate capital on satisfactory terms, or at all, as a result of negative conditions in the capital markets or otherwise, our business, financial condition, results of operations or our ability to pay dividends to our shareholders could be materially adversely affected. Additionally, such inability to obtain capital on satisfactory terms, or at all, could prevent us from pursuing attractive future growth opportunities.
Risks affecting the airline industry may adversely affect our customers and have a material adverse impact on our financial results.
We operate as a supplier to airlines and are indirectly impacted by all the risks facing airlines today. The ability of each lessee to perform its obligations under the relevant lease will depend primarily on the lessee’s financial condition and cash flow, which may be affected by factors beyond our control, including:
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passenger and air cargo demand;
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competition;
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passenger fare levels and air cargo rates;
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the continuing availability of government support, whether through subsidies, loans, guarantees, equity investments or otherwise;
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availability of financing and other circumstances affecting airline liquidity, including covenants in financings, terms imposed by credit card issuers, collateral posting requirements contained in fuel hedging contracts and the ability of airlines to make or refinance principal payments as they come due;
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geopolitical and other events, including war, acts or threats of terrorism, outbreaks of epidemic diseases and natural disasters;
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aircraft accidents;
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operating costs, including the price and availability of jet fuel, labor costs and insurance costs and coverages;
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restrictions in labor contracts and labor difficulties;
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economic conditions, including recession, financial system distress and currency fluctuations in the countries and regions in which the lessee operates or from which the lessee obtains financing; and
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governmental regulation of, or affecting the air transportation business, including noise regulations, emissions regulations, climate change initiatives, and aircraft age limitations.
These factors, and others, may lead to defaults by our customers, or may delay or prevent aircraft deliveries or transitions, result in payment restructurings or other lease term restructurings, and may increase our costs from repossessions and reduce our revenues due to downtime or lower re-lease rates.
We bear the risk of re-leasing and selling our aircraft in order to meet our debt obligations, finance our growth and operations, pay dividends and, ultimately, realize upon the investment in the aircraft in our portfolio.
We bear the risk of re-leasing and selling or otherwise disposing of our aircraft in order to continue to generate revenues. In certain cases we commit to purchase aircraft that are not subject to lease and therefore are subject to lease placement risk for aircraft we are obliged to purchase. Because only a portion of an aircraft’s value is covered by contractual cash flows from an operating lease, we are exposed to the risk that the residual value of the aircraft will not be sufficient to permit us to fully recover or realize a gain on our investment in the aircraft and to the risk that we may have to record impairment charges. Further, our ability to re-lease, lease or sell aircraft on favorable terms, or at all, or without significant off-lease time and transition costs is likely to be adversely impacted by risks affecting the airline industry generally.
Other factors that may affect our ability to realize upon the investment in our aircraft and that may increase the likelihood of impairment charges, include higher fuel prices which may reduce demand for older, less fuel efficient aircraft, additional environmental regulations, customer preferences and other factors that may effectively shorten the useful life of older aircraft.
We wrote down the value of some of our assets during 2014, and if conditions worsen, or in the event of a customer default, we may be required to record further write-downs.
We test our assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amounts for such assets are not recoverable from their expected, undiscounted cash flows. We also perform our annual fleet-wide recoverability assessment during the third quarter of each year. This recoverability assessment is a comparison of the carrying value of each aircraft to its undiscounted expected future cash flows. We develop the assumptions used in the recoverability assessment, including those relating to current and future demand for each aircraft type, based on management's experience in the aircraft leasing industry as well as information received from third party sources. We refer to impairments arising from this analysis as "Annual Fleet-Wide Impairments". During our 2014 assessment, we reduced our forecast of future cash flows for two older freighter aircraft and recorded an aggregate of $19.5 million in impairments during the third quarter.
In addition to charges arising from our fleet-wide review, during 2014 we recorded impairment charges of $42.7 million on several aircraft that were returned to us early as a result of lease terminations or amendments which we refer to as
"Transactional Impairments". During 2014, we also recorded impairment charges of $30.9 million related to our exit from converted freighter aircraft which we refer to as "Freighters Held for Sale". We recorded maintenance revenue and other revenue and reversed lease incentives related to some of these aircraft that partly offset these impairments. See “Item 7: Management Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Summary of Impairments and Recoverability Assessment” for more details.
If anticipated aircraft lease cash flows or sales values worsen due to a decline in market conditions, or a lessee customer defaults, we may have to reassess the carrying value of one or more of our aircraft assets. In particular, we believe that as aircraft approach the end of their economic useful lives, their carrying values may be more susceptible to non-recoverable declines in value because such assets will have a shorter opportunity in which to benefit from a market recovery. As such, it is possible that additional impairments may be triggered for other long-lived assets and any such impairment amounts may be material. As of December 31, 2014, based on net book value, 19% of our aircraft portfolio was 15 years or older, 5% of our aircraft portfolio was 20 years or older and less than 1% of our aircraft portfolio was 25 years or older.
Our financial reporting for lease revenue may be significantly impacted by a proposed new model for lease accounting.
On August 17, 2010, the International Accounting Standards Board, (“IASB”), and FASB published for public comment joint proposals (the “Proposals”) to change the financial reporting of lease contracts (“Lease ED”).
In May 2013, the FASB issued re-exposure draft, “Leases” (the “Lease Re-ED”), which would replace the existing guidance in the Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 840 (“ASC 840”), Leases. In March 2014, the FASB decided that the accounting for leases by lessors would basically remain unchanged from the concepts existing in current ASC 840 accounting. In addition, the FASB decided that a lessor should be precluded from recognizing selling profit and revenue at lease commencement for any sales-type or direct finance lease that does not transfer control of the underlying asset to the lessee. This requirement aligns the notion of what constitutes a sale in the lessor accounting guidance with that in the forthcoming revenue recognition standard, which evaluates whether a sale has occurred from the customer’s perspective. We anticipate that the final lease standard may have an effective date no earlier than 2017. We believe that when and if the proposed guidance becomes effective, the changes will not have a material impact our financial results and the market price of our shares.
Our ability to obtain debt financing and our cost of debt financing is, in part, dependent upon our credit ratings and a credit downgrade could adversely impact our financial results.
Our ability to obtain debt financing and our cost of debt financing is dependent, in part, on our credit ratings. Maintaining our credit ratings depends in part on strong financial results and in part on other factors, including the outlook of the ratings agencies on our sector and on the market generally. A credit rating downgrade may result in higher pricing or less favorable terms under secured financings, including Export Credit Agency backed financings, or may make it more difficult or more costly for us to raise debt financing in the unsecured bond market. Credit rating downgrades may therefore make it more difficult to satisfy our funding requirements.
An increase in our borrowing costs may adversely affect our earnings and cash available for distribution to our shareholders.
Our aircraft are financed under long-term debt financings. As these financings mature, we will be required to either refinance these instruments by entering into new financings, which could result in higher borrowing costs, or repay them by using cash on hand or cash from the sale of our assets.
Departure of key officers could harm our business and financial results.
Our senior management’s reputations and relationships with lessees, sellers, buyers and financiers of aircraft are a critical element of our business. We encounter intense competition for qualified employees from other companies in the aircraft leasing industry, and we believe there are only a limited number of available qualified executives in our industry. Our future success depends, to a significant extent, upon the continued service of our senior management personnel, and if we lose one or more of these individuals, our business could be adversely affected.
We may not be able to pay or maintain dividends, or we may choose not to pay dividends, and the failure to pay or maintain dividends may adversely affect our share price.
On October 31, 2014, our board of directors declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.22 per common share, or an aggregate of approximately $17.8 million, which was paid on December 15, 2014 to holders of record on November 28, 2014. This dividend may not be indicative of the amount of any future quarterly dividends. Our ability to pay, maintain or increase cash dividends to our shareholders is subject to the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on many factors, including: our ability to comply with financial covenants in our financing documents that limit our ability to pay dividends and make certain other restricted payments; the difficulty we may experience in raising, and the cost of, additional capital and our ability to finance our aircraft acquisition commitments; our ability to re-finance our securitizations and other long-term financings; our ability to negotiate and enforce favorable lease rates and other contractual terms; the level of demand for our aircraft in the lease placement or sales markets; the economic condition of the commercial aviation industry generally; the financial condition and liquidity of our lessees; unexpected or increased aircraft maintenance or other expenses; the level and timing of capital expenditures, principal repayments and other capital needs; maintaining our credit ratings, our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity; legal restrictions on the payment of dividends, including a statutory dividend test and other limitations under Bermuda law; and general business conditions and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant. Some of these factors are beyond our control. In the future we may not choose to pay dividends or may not be able to pay dividends, maintain our current level of dividends, or increase them over time. The failure to maintain or pay dividends may adversely affect our share price.
We are subject to risks related to our indebtedness that may limit our operational flexibility and our ability to compete with our competitors.
General Risks
As of December 31, 2014, our total indebtedness was approximately $3.8 billion, representing approximately 68.8% of our total capitalization. Aircastle Limited has guaranteed most of this indebtedness, and we are responsible on a full recourse basis for timely payment when due and compliance with covenants under the related debt documentation. As a result of our substantial amount of indebtedness, we may be unable to generate sufficient cash to pay, when due, the principal of, interest on or other amounts due with respect to our indebtedness, and our substantial amount of indebtedness may increase our vulnerability to adverse economic and industry conditions, reduce our flexibility in planning for or reaction to changes in the business environment or in our business or industry, and adversely affect our cash flow and our ability to operate our business and compete with our competitors.
Our indebtedness subjects us to certain risks, including:
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a significant percentage of our aircraft and aircraft leases serve as collateral for our secured indebtedness, and the terms of certain of our indebtedness require us to use proceeds from sales of aircraft, in part, to repay amounts outstanding under such indebtedness;
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under terms of certain debt facilities, we may be required to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flows from operations, if available, to debt service payments, thereby reducing the amount of our cash flow available to pay dividends, fund working capital, make capital expenditures and satisfy other needs;
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our failure to comply with the terms of our indebtedness, including restrictive covenants contained therein, may result in additional interest being due or defaults that could result in the acceleration of the principal, and unpaid interest on, the defaulted debt, as well as the forfeiture of any aircraft pledged as collateral; and
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non-compliance with covenants prohibiting certain investments and other restricted payments, including limitations on our ability to pay dividends, repurchase our common shares, raise additional capital or refinance our existing debt, may reduce our operational flexibility and limit our ability to refinance or grow the business.
Risks Relating to Our Long-term Financings
The provisions of our long-term financings require us to comply with financial and other covenants. Our compliance with these ratios, tests and covenants depends upon, among other things, the timely receipt of lease payments from our lessees and upon our overall financial performance.
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ECA Term Financings. Our ECA term financings contain a $500 million minimum net worth covenant and also contain, among other customary provisions, a material adverse change default and a cross-default to certain other financings of the Company.
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Bank Financings. Our bank financings contain, among other customary provisions, a $500 million minimum net worth covenant and a cross-default to certain other financings of the Company.
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Senior Notes. Our senior notes indenture imposes operating and financial restrictions on our activities. These restrictions limit our ability to, or in certain cases prohibit us from, incurring or guaranteeing additional indebtedness, refinancing our existing indebtedness, paying dividends, repurchasing our common shares, making other restricted payments, making certain investments or entering into joint ventures and a cross-default to certain other financings of the Company.
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Revolving Credit Facility. Our revolving credit facility contains a $750 million minimum net worth covenant, a minimum unencumbered asset ratio, a minimum interest coverage ratio and a cross-default to certain other financings of the Company.
In addition, under the terms of the securitization, certain transactions will require the consent or approval of independent directors, the rating agencies that rated the applicable portfolio’s certificates or the financial guaranty insurance policy issuer. Absent the aforementioned consent, which we may not receive, we may not be able to lease our aircraft to certain customers or to sell an aircraft, even if to do so would provide the best risk/return outcome at that time.
The terms of our financings also restrict our ability to incur or guarantee additional indebtedness or engage in mergers, amalgamations or consolidations among our subsidiary companies or between a subsidiary company and a third party or otherwise dispose of all or substantially all of our assets.
We are subject to various risks and requirements associated with transacting business in foreign jurisdictions.
The international nature of our business exposes us to trade and economic sanctions and other restrictions imposed by the U.S. and other governments. The U.S. Departments of Justice, Commerce, Treasury and other agencies and authorities have a broad range of civil and criminal penalties they may seek to impose against companies for violations of export controls, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), and other federal statutes, sanctions and regulations, including those established by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) and, increasingly, similar or more restrictive foreign laws, rules and regulations, including the U.K. Bribery Act (“UKBA”), which may also apply to us. By virtue of these laws and regulations, and under laws and regulations in other jurisdictions, we may be obliged to limit our business activities, we may incur costs for compliance programs and we may be subject to enforcement actions or penalties for noncompliance. In recent years, U.S. and foreign governments have increased their oversight and enforcement activities with respect to these laws, and we expect the relevant agencies to continue to increase these activities.
We have compliance policies and training programs in place for our employees with respect to FCPA, OFAC Regulations, UKBA and similar laws, but there can be no assurance that our employees, consultants or agents will not engage in conduct for which we may be held responsible. Violations of FCPA, OFAC Regulations, UKBA and other laws, sanctions or regulations may result in severe criminal or civil penalties, and we may be subject to other liabilities.
We are dependent upon information technology systems, which are subject to disruption, damage, failure and risks associated with implementation and integration.
We are dependent upon information technology systems to manage, process, store and transmit information associated with our operations, which may include proprietary business information and personally identifiable information of our customers and employees. Our information technology systems are subject to disruption, damage or failure from a variety of sources, including, without limitation, computer viruses, security breaches, cyber-attacks, employee error, natural disasters and defects in design. Damage, disruption, or failure of one or more information technology systems may result in interruptions to our operations in the interim or may require a significant investment to fix or replace them or may result in significant damage to our reputation. Although various measures have been implemented to manage our risks related to the information technology systems and network disruptions, a cyber-attack could lead to the loss of sensitive information, including our own proprietary information or that of our customers and employees, and could harm our reputation and result in lost revenues and additional costs and potential liabilities.
Risks Related to Our Aviation Assets
The variability of supply and demand for aircraft could depress lease rates for our aircraft, which would have an adverse effect on our financial results and growth prospects.
The aircraft leasing and sales industry has experienced periods of aircraft oversupply and undersupply. In recent years, we believe the market has been characterized by oversupply of certain older, less fuel efficient aircraft and certain freighter aircraft types. The oversupply of a specific type of aircraft in the market is likely to depress aircraft lease rates for, and the value of, that type of aircraft.
The supply and demand for aircraft is affected by various cyclical and non-cyclical factors that are not under our control, including:
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passenger and air cargo demand;
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operating costs, including fuel costs, and general economic conditions affecting our lessees’ operations;
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geopolitical events, including war, prolonged armed conflict and acts of terrorism;
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outbreaks of communicable diseases and natural disasters;
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governmental regulation;
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interest rates;
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foreign exchange rates;
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airline restructurings and bankruptcies;
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the availability of credit;
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changes in control of, or restructurings of, other aircraft leasing companies;
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manufacturer production levels and technological innovation;
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climate change initiatives, technological change, aircraft noise and emissions regulations, aircraft age limits and other factors leading to reduced demand for, early retirement or obsolescence of aircraft models;
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manufacturers merging, exiting the industry or ceasing to produce aircraft types;
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new-entrant manufacturers producing additional aircraft models, or existing manufacturers producing newly engined aircraft models or new aircraft models, in competition with existing aircraft models;
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reintroduction into service of aircraft previously in storage; and
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airport and air traffic control infrastructure constraints.
These and other factors may produce sharp decreases or increases in aircraft values and lease rates, which would impact our cost of acquiring aircraft and our ability to grow the business, or which may result in lease defaults and also prevent the aircraft from being re-leased or sold on favorable terms. This could have an adverse effect on our financial results and growth prospects.
Other factors that increase the risk of decline in aircraft value and lease rates could have an adverse effect on our financial results and growth prospects.
In addition to factors linked to the aviation industry generally, other factors that may affect the value and lease rates of our aircraft include:
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the age of the aircraft;
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the particular maintenance and operating history of the airframe and engines;
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the number of operators using that type of aircraft;
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whether the aircraft is subject to a lease and, if so, whether the lease terms are favorable to us;
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applicable airworthiness directives or manufacturer’s service bulletins that have not yet been performed to the aircraft;
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grounding orders or other regulatory action that could prevent or limit utilization of our aircraft;
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any regulatory and legal requirements that must be satisfied before the aircraft can be purchased, sold or re-leased; and
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compatibility of our aircraft configurations or specifications with those desired by the operators of other aircraft of that type.
Any decrease in the values of and lease rates for commercial aircraft which may result from the above factors or other unanticipated factors may have a material adverse effect on our financial results and growth prospects.
The advent of superior aircraft technology could cause our existing aircraft portfolio to become outdated and therefore less desirable.
As manufacturers introduce technological innovations and new types of aircraft, including the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 and re-engined and/or replacement types for the Boeing 737, Boeing 777, Airbus A320, Airbus A330 and Embraer E-Jet families of aircraft, certain aircraft in our existing aircraft portfolio may become less desirable to potential lessees or purchasers. This next generation of aircraft is expected to deliver improved fuel consumption and reduced noise and emissions with lower operating costs compared to current-technology aircraft. The Boeing 787 is currently in production while the Boeing 777X is expected to enter service in 2020-2021. The first variant of the Airbus A350 entered service in December 2014. The A320neo, A330neo and 737 MAX families of aircraft are expected to enter service between 2016 and 2017 and Embraer has also announced that it intends to produce a second generation of E-Jets as early as 2018. Further, Bombardier Inc., Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd and Sukhoi Company (JSC) are developing aircraft models that will compete with the Airbus A319 and Boeing 737 and other aircraft in our fleet.
The introduction of these new models could adversely affect our ability to lease or sell our aircraft on favorable terms, or at all.
The effects of energy, emissions, and noise regulations and policies may negatively affect the airline industry. This may cause lessees to default on their lease payment obligations to us and may limit the market for certain aircraft in our portfolio.
Governmental regulations regarding aircraft and engine noise and emissions levels apply based on where the relevant aircraft is registered and operated. For example, jurisdictions throughout the world have adopted noise regulations which require all aircraft to comply with noise level standards. In addition to the current requirements, the United States and the International Civil Aviation Organization (“ICAO”) have adopted a new, more stringent set of standards for noise levels which applies to engines manufactured or certified on or after January 1, 2006. Currently, U.S. regulations would not require any phase-out of aircraft that qualify with the older standards applicable to engines manufactured or certified prior to January 1, 2006, but the EU has established a framework for the imposition of operating limitations on aircraft that do not comply with the new standards. These regulations could limit the economic life of the aircraft and engines, reduce their value, limit our ability to lease or sell these non-compliant aircraft and engines or, if engine modifications are permitted, require us to make significant additional investments in the aircraft and engines to make them compliant.
In addition to stringent noise restrictions, the U.S. and other jurisdictions have imposed stringent limits on aircraft engine emissions, such as NOx, CO and CO2, consistent with current ICAO standards. European countries have relatively strict environmental regulations that can restrict operational flexibility and decrease aircraft productivity. The EU has included the aviation sector in its ETS, and has attempted to apply the ETS to flights outside of European airspace. This effort has been opposed by the U.S. and other countries. The EU has since suspended the ETS for flights from or to non-European countries due to a proposal issued by the ICAO in October 2013 for a global program to reduce aircraft greenhouse gases (“GHGs”), which would become effective by 2020. As a result the EU has also proposed to amend the ETS to permanently exclude all flights or portions thereof that do not take place in European regional airspace from the ETS until the ICAO mechanism goes into effect. Finally, the ICAO has also adopted a resolution designed to cap GHGs from aircraft and further committed to propose a GHG standard for aircraft engines by 2016.
Over time, it is possible that governments will adopt additional regulatory requirements and/or market-based policies that are intended to reduce energy usage, emissions, and noise levels from aircraft. Such initiatives may be based on concerns regarding climate change, energy security, public health, local impacts, or other factors, and may also impact the global market for certain aircraft and cause behavioral shifts that result in decreased demand for air travel. These concerns could also result in greater limitations on the operation of our fleet, particularly aircraft equipped with other technology engines.
Compliance with current or future regulations, taxes or duties could cause our lessees to incur higher costs and lead to higher ticket prices, which could mean lower demand for travel and adverse impacts on the financial condition of our lessees. Such compliance may also affect our lessees’ ability to make rental and other lease payments and limit the market for aircraft in our portfolio, which could have other negative effects on our financial position.
The older age, or older technology, of some of our aircraft may expose us to higher than anticipated maintenance related expenses.
As of December 31, 2014, 19% of our aircraft portfolio, based on net book value, was 15 years or older. In general, the costs of operating an aircraft, including maintenance expenditures, increase with the age of the aircraft. Additionally, older aircraft typically are less fuel-efficient than newer aircraft and may be more difficult to re-lease or sell, particularly if, due to increasing production rates by aircraft manufacturers or airline insolvencies or other distress, older aircraft are competing with newer aircraft in the lease or sale market. Expenses like fuel, aging aircraft inspections, maintenance or modification programs and related airworthiness directives could make the operation of older aircraft less economically feasible and may result in increased lessee defaults. We may also incur some of these increased maintenance expenses and regulatory costs upon acquisition or re-leasing of our aircraft. In addition, a number of countries have adopted or may adopt age limits on aircraft imports, which may result in greater difficulty placing affected aircraft on lease or re-lease on favorable terms.
The concentration of aircraft types in our aircraft portfolio could lead to adverse effects on our business and financial results should any difficulties specific to these particular types of aircraft occur.
Our owned aircraft portfolio is concentrated in certain aircraft types. Should any of these aircraft types (or other types we acquire in the future) or aircraft manufacturers encounter technical, financial or other difficulties, it would cause a decrease in value of these aircraft, an inability to lease the aircraft on favorable terms or at all, or a potential grounding of these aircraft, which may adversely impact our financial results, to the extent the affected aircraft types comprise a significant percentage of our aircraft portfolio.
We operate in a highly competitive market for investment opportunities in aviation assets and for the leasing and sale of aircraft.
We compete with other operating lessors, airlines, aircraft manufacturers, financial institutions, aircraft brokers and other investors with respect to aircraft acquisitions, leasing and sales. The aircraft leasing industry is highly competitive and may be divided into three basic activities: (i) aircraft acquisition, (ii) leasing or re-leasing of aircraft, and (iii) aircraft sales. Competition varies among these three basic activities.
A number of our competitors are substantially larger and have considerably greater financial, technical and marketing resources than we do. Some competitors may have a lower cost of funds and access to funding sources that are not available to us. In addition, some of our competitors may have higher risk tolerances or different risk or residual value assessments, which could allow them to consider a wider variety of investments, establish more relationships, bid more aggressively on aviation assets available for sale and offer lower lease rates or sales prices than we can. Some of our competitors may provide financial services, maintenance services or other inducements to potential lessees or buyers that we cannot provide. As a result of competitive pressures, we may not be able to take advantage of attractive investment opportunities from time to time, and we may not be able to identify and make investments that are consistent with our investment objectives. We are beginning to see a greater supply of certain aircraft, engines and parts being offered for sale in the part-out market as other leasing companies start addressing the older aircraft in their portfolios. Additionally, the barriers to entry in the aircraft acquisition and leasing market are comparatively low, and new entrants with private equity, hedge fund, Asian bank or other funding sources appear from time to time. We may not be able to compete effectively against present and future competitors in the aircraft acquisition, leasing or sales market.
Risks Related to Our Leases
If lessees are unable to fund their maintenance obligations on our aircraft, we may incur increased costs at the conclusion of the applicable lease.
The standards of maintenance observed by the various lessees and the condition of the aircraft at the time of lease or sale may affect the future values and rental rates for our aircraft.
Under our leases, the relevant lessee is generally responsible for maintaining the aircraft and complying with all governmental requirements applicable to the lessee and the aircraft, including, without limitation, operational, maintenance, and registration requirements and airworthiness directives, although in certain cases we may agree to share certain of these costs. Failure of a lessee to perform required aircraft maintenance or required airworthiness directives could result in a decrease in value of such aircraft, an adverse effect on our ability to lease the aircraft at favorable rates or at all, or a potential
grounding of such aircraft, and will likely require us to incur increased maintenance and modification costs upon the expiration or earlier termination of the applicable lease, which could be substantial, to restore such aircraft to an acceptable condition. If any of our aircraft are not subject to a lease, we would be required to bear the entire cost of maintaining that aircraft and performing any required airworthiness directives.
Certain of our leases provide that the lessee is required to make periodic payments to us during the lease term in order to provide cash reserves for the major maintenance. In these leases there is an associated liability for us to reimburse the lessee after such maintenance is performed. A substantial number of our leases do not provide for any periodic maintenance reserve payments to be made to us. Typically, these lessees are required to make payments at the end of the lease term; however, in the event such lessees default, we may be required to fund the entire cost of performing major maintenance on the relevant aircraft without having received compensating maintenance payments from these lessees.
Even if we receive maintenance payments, these payments may not cover the entire expense of the scheduled maintenance they are intended to fund. In addition, maintenance payments typically cover only certain scheduled maintenance requirements and do not cover all required maintenance and all scheduled maintenance. As a result, we may incur unanticipated or significant costs at the conclusion of a lease.
Failure to pay certain potential additional operating costs could result in the grounding or arrest of our aircraft and prevent the re-lease, sale or other use of our aircraft.
As in the case of maintenance costs, we may incur other operational costs upon a lessee default or where the terms of the lease require us to pay a portion of those costs. Such costs include:
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the costs of casualty, liability and political risk insurance and the liability costs or losses when insurance coverage has not been or cannot be obtained as required, or is insufficient in amount or scope;
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the costs of licensing, exporting or importing an aircraft, airport charges, customs duties, air navigation charges, landing fees and similar governmental or quasi-governmental impositions, which can be substantial;
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penalties and costs associated with the failure of lessees to keep aircraft registered under all appropriate local requirements or obtain required governmental licenses, consents and approvals; and
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carbon taxes or other fees, taxes or costs imposed under emissions limitations, climate change regulations or other initiatives.
The failure to pay certain of these costs can result in liens on the aircraft and the failure to register the aircraft can result in a loss of insurance. These matters could result in the grounding or arrest of the aircraft and prevent the re-lease, sale or other use of the aircraft until the problem is cured.
Our lessees may have inadequate insurance coverage or fail to fulfill their respective indemnity obligations, which could result in us not being covered for claims asserted against us.
By virtue of holding title to the aircraft, lessors may be held strictly liable for losses resulting from the operation of aircraft or may be held liable for those losses based on other legal theories. Liability may be placed on an aircraft lessor in certain jurisdictions around the world even under circumstances in which the lessor is not directly controlling the operation of the relevant aircraft.
Lessees are required under our leases to indemnify us for, and insure against, liabilities arising out of the use and operation of the aircraft, including third-party claims for death or injury to persons and damage to property for which we may be deemed liable. Lessees are also required to maintain public liability, property damage and hull all risk and hull war risk insurance on the aircraft at agreed upon levels. However, they are not generally required to maintain political risk insurance. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, aviation insurers significantly reduced the amount of insurance coverage available to airlines for liability to persons other than employees or passengers for claims resulting from acts of terrorism, war or similar events. At the same time, they significantly increased the premiums for such third-party war risk and terrorism liability insurance and coverage in general. As a result, the amount of such third-party war risk and terrorism liability insurance that is commercially available at any time may be below the amount stipulated in our leases.
Our lessees’ insurance, including any available governmental supplemental coverage, may not be sufficient to cover all types of claims that may be asserted against us. Any inadequate insurance coverage or default by lessees in fulfilling their indemnification or insurance obligations will reduce the proceeds that would be received by us upon an event of loss under the respective leases or upon a claim under the relevant liability insurance.
Failure to obtain certain required licenses and approvals could negatively affect our ability to re-lease or sell aircraft.
A number of our lessees must obtain licenses, consents or approvals in order to import or operate the aircraft or comply with the leases. These include consents from governmental or regulatory authorities for certain payments under the leases and for the import, export or deregistration of the aircraft. Subsequent changes in applicable law or administrative practice may increase such requirements and a governmental consent, once given, might be withdrawn. Furthermore, consents needed in connection with future re-leasing or sale of an aircraft may not be forthcoming. Any of these events could adversely affect our ability to re-lease or sell aircraft.
Due to the fact that many of our lessees operate in emerging markets, we are indirectly subject to many of the economic and political risks associated with competing in such markets.
Emerging markets are countries which have less developed economies that are vulnerable to economic and political problems, such as significant fluctuations in gross domestic product, interest and currency exchange rates, civil disturbances, government instability, nationalization and expropriation of private assets, changes in governments or government policy and the imposition of taxes or other charges by governments. The occurrence of any of these events in markets served by our lessees and the resulting instability may adversely affect our ownership interest in an aircraft or the ability of lessees which operate in these markets to meet their lease obligations and these lessees may be more likely to default than lessees that operate in developed economies. For the year ended December 31, 2014, 45 of our lessees which operated 111 aircraft and generated lease rental revenue representing 54% of our lease rental revenue are domiciled or habitually based in emerging markets.
Risks Related to Our Lessees
Lessee defaults could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
As a general matter, airlines with weak capital structures are more likely than well-capitalized airlines to seek operating leases, and, at any point in time, investors should expect a varying number of lessees and sub-lessees to experience payment difficulties. As a result of their weak financial condition and lack of liquidity, a portion of lessees over time may be significantly in arrears in their rental or maintenance payments. This is likely to be the case in the future and with other lessees and sub-lessees of our aircraft as well, particularly in a difficult economic or operating environment. These liquidity issues will be more likely to lead to airline failures in the context of financial system distress, volatile fuel prices, and economic slowdown, with additional liquidity being more difficult and expensive to source. Given the size of our aircraft portfolio, we expect that from time to time some lessees will be slow in making, or will fail to make, their payments in full under their leases.
We may not correctly assess the credit risk of each lessee or may not be in a position to charge risk-adjusted lease rates, and lessees may not be able to continue to perform their financial and other obligations under our leases in the future. A delayed, reduced or missed rental payment from a lessee decreases our revenues and cash flow and may adversely affect our ability to make payments on our indebtedness or to comply with debt service coverage or interest coverage ratios. While we may experience some level of delinquency under our leases, default levels may increase over time, particularly as our aircraft portfolio ages and if economic conditions deteriorate. A lessee may experience periodic difficulties that are not financial in nature, which could impair its performance of maintenance obligations under the leases. These difficulties may include the failure to perform required aircraft maintenance and labor-management disagreements or disputes.
In the event that a lessee defaults under a lease, any security deposit paid or letter of credit provided by the lessee may not be sufficient to cover the lessee’s outstanding or unpaid lease obligations and required maintenance and transition expenses.
Adverse currency movements could negatively affect our lessees' ability to honor the terms of their leases and could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Many of our lessees are exposed to currency risk due to the fact that they earn revenues in their local currencies while a significant portion of their liabilities and expenses, including fuel, debt service, and lease payments are denominated in U.S. dollars. In the case of a devaluation of the local currency, our lessees may not be able to increase revenue sufficiently to offset the impact of exchange rates on these expenses. This is particularly true for non-U.S. airlines whose operations are primarily domestic. This difference is magnified in the event of an appreciating U.S. dollar, as we have seen over the course of the last year, due to the strengthening of the U.S. economy and the expectation of rising U.S. interest rates. Currency volatility, particularly as witnessed recently in Russia and other emerging market countries, could impact the ability of some
of our customers to meet their contractual obligations in a timely manner. Shifts in foreign exchange rates can be significant, are difficult to predict, and can occur quickly.
If our lessees encounter financial difficulties and we decide to restructure our leases with those lessees, this could result in less favorable leases and in significant reductions in our cash flow or adversely affect our financial results.
When a lessee is late in making payments, fails to make payments in full or in part under the lease or has otherwise advised us that it will in the future fail to make payments in full or in part under the lease, we may elect to or be required to restructure the lease. Restructuring may involve anything from a simple rescheduling of payments to the termination of a lease without receiving all or any of the past due amounts. If any requests for payment restructuring or rescheduling are made and granted, reduced or deferred rental payments may be payable over all or some part of the remaining term of the lease, although the terms of any revised payment schedules may be unfavorable and such payments may not be made. We may be unable to agree upon acceptable terms for any requested restructurings and as a result may be forced to exercise our remedies under those leases. If we, in the exercise of our remedies, repossess the aircraft, we may not be able to re-lease the aircraft promptly at favorable rates, or at all.
The terms and conditions of payment restructurings or reschedulings may result in significant reductions of rental payments, which may adversely affect our cash flows or our financial results.
Significant costs resulting from lease defaults could have a material adverse effect on our business.
Although we have the right to repossess the aircraft and to exercise other remedies upon a lessee default, repossession of an aircraft after a lessee default would lead to significantly increased costs for us. Those costs include legal and other expenses of court or other governmental proceedings, particularly if the lessee is contesting the proceedings or is in bankruptcy, to obtain possession and/or de-registration of the aircraft and flight and export permissions. Delays resulting from any of these proceedings would also increase the period of time during which the relevant aircraft is not generating revenue. In addition, we may incur substantial maintenance, refurbishment or repair costs that a defaulting lessee has failed to incur or pay and that are necessary to put the aircraft in suitable condition for re-lease or sale and we may be required to pay off liens, claims, taxes and other governmental charges on the aircraft to obtain clear possession and to remarket the aircraft for re-lease or sale. We may also incur maintenance, storage or other costs while we have physical possession of the aircraft.
We may also suffer other adverse consequences as a result of a lessee default and any termination of the lease and the repossession of the related aircraft. Our rights upon a lessee default vary significantly depending upon the jurisdiction, including the need to obtain a court order for repossession of the aircraft and/or consents for de-registration or re-export of the aircraft. When a defaulting lessee is in bankruptcy, protective administration, insolvency or similar proceedings, additional limitations may apply. Certain jurisdictions will give rights to the trustee in bankruptcy or a similar officer to assume or reject the lease or to assign it to a third party, or will entitle the lessee or another third party to retain possession of the aircraft without paying lease rentals or without performing all or some of the obligations under the relevant lease. Certain of our lessees are owned in whole or in part by government-related entities, which could complicate our efforts to repossess the relevant aircraft. Accordingly, we may be delayed in, or prevented from, enforcing certain of our rights under a lease and in re-leasing or selling the affected aircraft.
If we repossess an aircraft, we will not necessarily be able to export or de-register and profitably redeploy the aircraft. For instance, where a lessee or other operator flies only domestic routes in the jurisdiction in which the aircraft is registered, repossession may be more difficult, especially if the jurisdiction permits the lessee or the other operator to resist de-registration. Significant costs may also be incurred in retrieving or recreating aircraft records required for registration of the aircraft and obtaining a certificate of airworthiness for the aircraft.
Airline reorganizations could have an adverse effect on our financial results.
As a result of economic conditions, significant volatility in oil prices and financial markets distress, airlines may be forced to reorganize. Historically, airlines involved in reorganizations have undertaken substantial fare discounting to maintain cash flows and to encourage continued customer loyalty. Such fare discounting has in the past led to lower profitability for all airlines, including certain of our lessees. Bankruptcies and reduced demand may lead to the grounding of significant numbers of aircraft and negotiated reductions in aircraft lease rental rates, with the effect of depressing aircraft market values. Additional grounded aircraft and lower market values would adversely affect our ability to sell certain of
our aircraft on favorable terms, or at all, or re-lease other aircraft at favorable rates comparable to the then current market conditions, which collectively would have an adverse effect on our financial results.
If our lessees fail to appropriately discharge aircraft liens, we might find it necessary to pay such claims, which could have a negative effect on our cash position and our business.
In the normal course of business, liens that secure the payment of airport fees and taxes, custom duties, air navigation charges (including charges imposed by Eurocontrol), landing charges, crew wages, repairer’s charges, salvage or other liens, are likely, depending on the jurisdiction in question, to attach to the aircraft. These liens may secure substantial sums that may, in certain jurisdictions or for certain types of liens (particularly "fleet liens"), exceed the value of the relevant aircraft. Although the financial obligations relating to these liens are the responsibility of our lessees, if they fail to fulfill their obligations, these liens may attach to our aircraft and ultimately become our responsibility. Until these liens are discharged, we may be unable to repossess, re-lease or sell the aircraft or unable to avoid detention or forfeiture of the aircraft.
Our lessees may not comply with their obligations under their respective leases to discharge liens arising during the terms of their leases, whether or not due to financial difficulties. If they do not do so, we may, in some cases, find it necessary to pay the claims secured by any liens in order to repossess the aircraft.
Risks associated with the concentration of our lessees in certain geographical regions could harm our business or financial results.
Our business is sensitive to local economic and political conditions that can influence the performance of lessees located in a particular region. For the year ended December 31, 2014, lease rental revenues from lessees by region, were 29% in Europe, 40% in Asia, 9% in North America, 13% in South America, and 9% in the Middle East and Africa.
European Concentration
Thirty-three lessees based in Europe, including Russia, accounted for 29% of our lease rental revenues for the year ended December 31, 2014 and 23 lessees accounted for 65 aircraft totaling 29% of the net book value of our aircraft at December 31, 2014. Eighteen aircraft, representing 6% of the net book value of our aircraft at December 31, 2014, were leased to a customer in Spain. We have no lessees based in Greece, Portugal, Italy or Ireland.
Commercial airlines in Europe continue to face increased competitive pressures due to the expansion of low cost carriers, industry consolidation, as well as the growth of strong airlines in the Middle East. While several of the continent's larger airlines have announced comprehensive restructuring efforts, including significant cost cutting measures, we have some concerns about the ability of smaller players to adapt to the changing environment.
The Russian airline industry has been hurt by recent events including the impact of sanctions against Russia and the devaluation of the Ruble. Russia accounted for 7% of our lease rental revenues for the year ended December 31, 2014 and accounted for ten aircraft totaling 6% of the net book value of our aircraft at December 31, 2014. These figures include five Boeing 737NG aircraft which were returned to us in January 2015 and are currently being remarketed. We also have a commitment to lease one additional Boeing 747 freighter aircraft to a Russian airline, and we expect to deliver this aircraft on lease during the first quarter of 2015. Continued uncertainty in Russia could lead to the early termination or repossession of more of our aircraft from Russian airlines. Our lease placement opportunities and lease rates may also be negatively impacted if other aircraft leased to Russian airlines are returned or new aircraft sales to Russian airlines fail to be consummated.
Asian Concentration
Twenty-five lessees based in Asia, including China, accounted for 40% of our lease rental revenues for the year ended December 31, 2014 and 18 lessees accounted for 46 aircraft totaling 40% of the net book value of our aircraft at December 31, 2014. Growth in most of Asia has been strong, driven in large part by emerging economies. Asian airlines face continued competition from new entrants and the growth of low cost carriers in the region. There is also risk of oversupply in the future driven by large outstanding order books of some Asian airlines. Demand weaknesses, due to slowing economic growth in the region, could adversely affect the Asian airlines industry.
Four lessees based in China accounted for 4% of our lease rental revenues for the year ended December 31, 2014 and two lessees accounted for five aircraft totaling 2% of the net book value of our aircraft at December 31, 2014. Chinese airline industry performance during 2014 was relatively strong, but airline performance could suffer if economic growth moderates.
North American Concentration
Seven lessees based in North America accounted for 9% of our lease rental revenues for the year ended December 31, 2014 and six lessees accounted for 17 aircraft totaling 7% of the net book value of our aircraft at December 31, 2014. Consolidation among major airlines in the U.S. has helped drive capacity discipline and pricing power, but despite recent improvements in the financial results of many carriers, airlines remain highly susceptible to macroeconomic and geopolitical factors outside their control.
South American Concentration
Six lessees based in South America accounted for 13% of our lease rental revenues for the year ended December 31, 2014 and five lessees accounted for 13 aircraft totaling 14% of the net book value of our aircraft at December 31, 2014. The region's largest economy, Brazil, has suffered from a stalled economy, which has forced a reduction in capacity by the country's airlines.
Middle East and African Concentration
Three lessees based in the Middle East and Africa accounted for 9% of our lease rental revenues for the year ended December 31, 2014 and two lessees accounted for six aircraft totaling 10% of the net book value of our aircraft at December 31, 2014. Middle Eastern, and particularly Gulf-based carriers, have a large number of aircraft on order and continue to capitalize on the region’s favorable geographic position as an East-West transfer hub. In recent years, a number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa experienced significant political instability, negatively impacting tourism and air travel. Continued unrest and instability would again negatively impact the financial performance of airlines operating to, from, and within this region.
South African Airways accounted for 5% of our lease rental revenues for the year ended December 31, 2014 and accounted for four aircraft totaling 5% of the net book value of our aircraft at December 31, 2014. South African Airways relies upon government support for its significant capital requirements.
Risks Related to the Aviation Industry
Fuel prices significantly impact the profitability of the airline industry. If fuel prices rise in the future, our lessees might not be able to meet their lease payment obligations, which would have an adverse effect on our financial results and growth prospects.
Fuel costs represent a major expense to companies operating within the airline industry. Fuel prices fluctuate widely depending primarily on international market conditions, geopolitical and environmental events and currency/exchange rates. As a result, fuel costs are not within the control of lessees and significant changes would materially affect their operating results.
Due to the competitive nature of the airline industry, airlines have been, and may continue to be, unable to pass on increases in fuel prices to their customers by increasing fares in a manner that fully compensates for the costs incurred. Higher and more volatile fuel prices may also have an impact on consumer confidence and spending, and thus may adversely impact demand for air transportation. In addition, airlines may not be able to successfully manage their exposure to fuel price fluctuations. If fuel prices increase due to future terrorist attacks, acts of war, armed hostilities, rebellion or political instability, natural disasters or for any other reason, they are likely to cause our lessees to incur higher costs and/or generate lower revenues, resulting in an adverse impact on their financial condition and liquidity. Fuel cost volatility may contribute to the reluctance of airlines to make future commitments to leased aircraft and reduce the demand for lease aircraft. Consequently, these conditions may (i) affect our lessees’ ability to make rental and other lease payments, (ii) result in lease restructurings and/or aircraft repossessions, (iii) increase our costs of re-leasing or selling our aircraft, or; (iv) impair our ability to re-lease or sell our aircraft on a timely basis at favorable rates or terms, or at all.
If the effects of terrorist attacks and geopolitical conditions adversely impact the financial condition of the airlines, our lessees might not be able to meet their lease payment obligations, which would have an adverse effect on our financial results and growth prospects.
War, armed hostilities or terrorist attacks, or the fear of such events, could decrease demand for air travel or increase the operating costs of our customers. The situations in Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and North Africa remain unsettled and tension over Iran’s nuclear program continues. Other international incidents, such as the recent events in, and the
imposition of further sanctions against North Korea or Russia, may lead to regional or broader international instability. Future terrorist attacks, war or armed hostilities, large protests or government instability, or the fear of such events, could further negatively impact the airline industry and may have an adverse effect on the financial condition and liquidity of our lessees, aircraft values and rental rates and may lead to lease restructurings or aircraft repossessions, all of which could adversely affect our financial results.
Terrorist attacks and geopolitical conditions have negatively affected the airline industry, and concerns about geopolitical conditions and further terrorist attacks could continue to negatively affect airlines (including our lessees) for the foreseeable future, depending upon various factors, including (i) higher costs to the airlines due to the increased security measures; (ii) decreased passenger demand and revenue due to safety concerns or the inconvenience of additional security measures; (iii) the price and availability of jet fuel; (iv) higher financing costs and difficulty in raising the desired amount of proceeds on favorable terms, or at all; (v) the significantly higher costs of aircraft insurance coverage for future claims caused by acts of war, terrorism, sabotage, hijacking and other similar perils, and the extent to which such insurance has been or will continue to be available; (vi) the ability of airlines to reduce their operating costs and conserve financial resources, taking into account the increased costs incurred as a consequence of terrorist attacks and geopolitical conditions, including those referred to above; and (vii) special charges recognized by some airlines, such as those related to the impairment of aircraft and other long lived assets stemming from the above conditions.
Epidemic diseases or their perceived effects may negatively impact the airline industry and our lessees' ability to meet their lease payment obligations to us, which, in turn, could have an adverse effect on our financial results.
Over the past several years, there have been several outbreaks of epidemic diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ("SARS"), avian influenza, H1N1 influenza, Middle Eastern Respirator Syndrome ("MERS") and, more recently, Ebola, which have spread to other parts of the world. If an outbreak of epidemic diseases were to occur, numerous responses, including travel restrictions, might be necessary to combat the spread of the disease. Even if restrictions are not implemented, it is likely that passengers would voluntarily choose to reduce travel. The 2003 outbreak of SARS was linked to air travel early in its development and reduced sharply passenger demand for air travel at that time. Since then, there have been several outbreaks of epidemic diseases, which have spread to other parts of the world, although their impact was relatively limited. Additional outbreaks of epidemic diseases, or the fear of such events, could result in travel bans or could have an adverse effect on our financial results.
Risks Related to Our Organization and Structure
If the ownership of our common shares continues to be highly concentrated, it may prevent you and other minority shareholders from influencing significant corporate decisions and may result in conflicts of interest.
As of February 6, 2015, Marubeni owns 16,759,233 shares, or 20.7% of our common shares. Although the Shareholder Agreement, dated as of June 6, 2013, among us, Marubeni and a subsidiary of Marubeni (as amended and restated from time to time, the "Shareholder Agreement"), imposes certain restrictions on Marubeni's and its affiliates' ability to make additional acquisitions of our common shares, Marubeni, nonetheless, may be able to influence fundamental corporate matters and transactions, including the election of directors; mergers or amalgamations (subject to prior board approval); consolidations or acquisitions; the sale of all or substantially all of our assets; in certain circumstances, the amendment of our bye-laws; and our winding up and dissolution. This concentration of ownership may delay, deter or prevent acts that would be favored by our other shareholders. The interests of Marubeni may not always coincide with our interests or the interests of our other shareholders. This concentration of ownership may also have the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change in control of our company. Also, Marubeni may seek to cause us to take courses of action that, in its judgment, could enhance its investment in us, but which might involve risks to our other shareholders or adversely affect us or our other shareholders. In addition, under the Shareholder Agreement, based on the current ownership of our common shares by Marubeni and the current size of our board of directors, Marubeni is entitled to designate three directors for election to our board of directors. As a result of these or other factors, the market price of our common shares could decline or shareholders might not receive a premium over the then-current market price of our common shares upon a change in control. In addition, this concentration of share ownership may adversely affect the trading price of our common shares because investors may perceive disadvantages in owning shares in a company with a significant shareholder.
We are a holding company with no operations and rely on our operating subsidiaries to provide us with funds necessary to meet our financial obligations.
We are a holding company with no material direct operations. Our principal assets are the equity interests we directly or indirectly hold in our operating subsidiaries. As a result, we are dependent on loans, dividends and other payments from our subsidiaries to generate the funds necessary to meet our financial obligations and to pay dividends to our shareholders. Although there are currently no material legal restrictions on our operating subsidiaries ability to distribute assets to us, legal restrictions, including governmental regulations and contractual obligations, could restrict or impair our operating subsidiaries ability to pay dividends or make loan or other distributions to us. Our subsidiaries are legally distinct from us and may be prohibited or restricted from paying dividends or otherwise making funds available to us under certain conditions.
We are a Bermuda company, and it may be difficult for you to enforce judgments against us or our directors and executive officers.
We are a Bermuda exempted company and, as such, the rights of holders of our common shares will be governed by Bermuda law and our memorandum of association and bye-laws. The rights of shareholders under Bermuda law may differ from the rights of shareholders of companies incorporated in other jurisdictions. A substantial portion of our assets are located outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult for investors to effect service of process on those persons in the United States or to enforce in the United States judgments obtained in U.S. courts against us or those persons based on the civil liability provisions of the U.S. securities laws. Uncertainty exists as to whether courts in Bermuda will enforce judgments obtained in other jurisdictions, including the United States, against us or our directors or officers under the securities laws of those jurisdictions or entertain actions in Bermuda against us or our directors or officers under the securities laws of other jurisdictions.
Our bye-laws restrict shareholders from bringing legal action against our officers and directors.
Our bye-laws contain a broad waiver by our shareholders of any claim or right of action, both individually and on our behalf, against any of our officers or directors. The waiver applies to any action taken by an officer or director, or the failure of an officer or director to take any action, in the performance of his or her duties, except with respect to any matter involving any fraud or dishonesty on the part of the officer or director. This waiver limits the right of shareholders to assert claims against our officers and directors unless the act or failure to act involves fraud or dishonesty.
We have anti-takeover provisions in our bye-laws that may discourage a change of control.
Our bye-laws contain provisions that could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us without the consent of our board of directors. These provisions include:
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provisions providing for a classified board of directors with staggered three-year terms;
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provisions regarding the election of directors, classes of directors, the term of office of directors and amalgamations to be rescinded, altered or amended only upon approval by a resolution of the directors and by a resolution of our shareholders, including the affirmative votes of at least 66% of the votes attaching to all shares in issue entitling the holder to vote on such resolution;
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provisions in our bye-laws dealing with the removal of directors and corporate opportunity to be rescinded, altered or amended only upon approval by a resolution of the directors and by a resolution of our shareholders, including the affirmative votes of at least 80% of the votes attaching to all shares in issue entitling the holder to vote on such resolution;
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provisions providing for the removal of directors by a resolution, including the affirmative votes of at least 80% of all votes attaching to all shares in issue entitling the holder to vote on such resolution;
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provisions providing for our board of directors to determine the powers, preferences and rights of our preference shares and to issue such preference shares without shareholder approval;
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provisions providing for advance notice requirements by shareholders for director nominations and actions to be taken at annual meetings; and
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no provision for cumulative voting in the election of directors; all the directors standing for election may be elected by our shareholders by a plurality of votes cast at a duly convened annual general meeting, the quorum for which is two or more persons present in person or by proxy at the start of the meeting and representing in excess of 50% of all votes attaching to all shares in issue entitling the holder to vote at the meeting.
In addition, these provisions may make it difficult and expensive for a third party to pursue a tender offer, change in control or takeover attempt that is opposed by our management and/or our board of directors. Public shareholders who might desire to participate in these types of transactions may not have an opportunity to do so. These anti-takeover provisions could substantially impede the ability of public shareholders to benefit from a change in control or change our management and board of directors and, as a result, may adversely affect the market price of our common shares and your ability to realize any potential change of control premium.
There are provisions in our bye-laws that may require certain of our non-U.S. shareholders to sell their shares to us or to a third party.
Our bye-laws provide that if our board of directors determines that we or any of our subsidiaries do not meet, or in the absence of repurchases of shares will fail to meet, the ownership requirements of a limitation on benefits article of any bilateral income tax treaty with the U.S. applicable to us, and that such tax treaty would provide material benefits to us or any of our subsidiaries, we generally have the right, but not the obligation, to repurchase, at fair market value (as determined pursuant to the method set forth in our bye-laws), common shares from any shareholder who beneficially owns more than 5% of our issued and outstanding common shares and who fails to demonstrate to our satisfaction that such shareholder is either a U.S. citizen or a qualified resident of the U.S. or the other contracting state of any applicable tax treaty with the U.S. (as determined for purposes of the relevant provision of the limitation on benefits article of such treaty).
We will have the option, but not the obligation, to purchase all or a part of the shares held by such shareholder (to the extent the board of directors, in the reasonable exercise of its discretion, determines it is necessary to avoid or cure adverse consequences), provided that the board of directors will use its reasonable efforts to exercise this option equitably among similarly situated shareholders (to the extent feasible under the circumstances).
Instead of exercising the repurchase right described above, we will have the right, but not the obligation, to cause the transfer to, and procure the purchase by, any U.S. citizen or a qualified resident of the U.S. or the other contracting state of the applicable tax treaty (as determined for purposes of the relevant provision of the limitation on benefits article of such treaty) of the number of issued and outstanding common shares beneficially owned by any shareholder that are otherwise subject to repurchase under our bye-laws as described above, at fair market value (as determined in the good faith discretion of our board of directors).
The joint venture with Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan may have an adverse effect on our business.
The joint venture we entered into with an affiliate of Teachers', which is referred to in "Other Aviation Assets and Alternative New Business Approaches" above, involves significant risks that may not be present with other methods of ownership, including:
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we may not realize a satisfactory return on our investment or the joint venture may divert management's attention from our business;
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our joint venture partners could have investment goals that are not consistent with our investment objectives, including the timing, terms and strategies for any investments;
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our joint venture partners might fail to fund their share of required capital contributions or fail to fulfill their obligations as a joint venture partner; and
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our joint venture partners may have competing interests in our markets that could create conflict of interest issues, particularly if aircraft owned by the joint venture are being marketed for lease or sale at a time when the Company also has comparable aircraft available for lease or sale.
As of February 6, 2015, Teachers' owns 9.7% of our common shares.
Risks Related to Our Common Shares
The market price and trading volume of our common shares may be volatile or may decline regardless of our operating performance, which could result in rapid and substantial losses for our shareholders.
If the market price of our common shares declines significantly, shareholders may be unable to resell their shares at or above their purchase price. The market price or trading volume of our common shares could be highly volatile and may decline significantly in the future in response to various factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:
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variations in our quarterly or annual operating results;
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failure to meet any earnings estimates;
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actual or perceived reduction in our growth or expected future growth;
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actual or anticipated accounting issues;
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publication of research reports about us, other aircraft lessors or the aviation industry or the failure of securities analysts to cover our common shares or the decision to suspend or terminate coverage in the future;
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additions or departures of key management personnel;
•
increased volatility in the capital markets and more limited or no access to debt financing, which may result in an increased cost of, or less favorable terms for, debt financing or may result in sales to satisfy collateral calls or other pressure on holders to sell our shares;
•
redemptions, or similar events affecting funds or other investors holding our shares, which may result in large block trades that could significantly impact the price of our common shares;
•
adverse market reaction to any indebtedness we may incur or preference or common shares we may issue in the future;
•
changes in or elimination of our dividend;
•
actions by shareholders;
•
changes in market valuations of similar companies;
•
announcements by us, our competitors or our suppliers of significant contracts, acquisitions, disposals, strategic partnerships, joint ventures or capital commitments;
•
speculation in the press or investment community;
•
changes or proposed changes in laws or regulations affecting the aviation industry or enforcement of these laws and regulations, or announcements relating to these matters; and
•
general market, political and economic conditions and local conditions in the markets in which our lessees are located.
In addition, the equity markets in general have frequently experienced substantial price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of companies traded in those markets. Changes in economic conditions in the U.S., Europe or globally could also impact our ability to grow profitably. These broad market and industry factors may materially affect the market price of our common shares, regardless of our business or operating performance. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, securities class-action litigation has often been instituted against that company. Such litigation, if instituted against us, could cause us to incur substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Future debt, which would be senior to our common shares upon liquidation, and additional equity securities, which would dilute the percentage ownership of our then current common shareholders and may be senior to our common shares for the purposes of dividends and liquidation distributions, may adversely affect the market price of our common shares.
In the future, we may attempt to increase our capital resources by incurring debt or issuing additional equity securities, including commercial paper, medium-term notes, senior or subordinated notes or loans and series of preference shares or common shares. Upon liquidation, holders of our debt investments and preference shares and lenders with respect to other borrowings would receive a distribution of our available assets prior to the holders of our common shares. Additional equity offerings would dilute the holdings of our then current common shareholders and could reduce the market price of our common shares, or both. Preference shares, if issued, could have a preference on liquidating distributions or a preference on dividend payments. Restrictive provisions in our debt and/or preference shares could limit our ability to make a distribution to the holders of our common shares. Because our decision to incur more debt or issue additional equity securities in the future will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing or nature of our future capital raising activities. Thus, holders of our common shares bear the risk of our future debt and equity issuances reducing the market price of our common shares and diluting their percentage ownership.
The market price of our common shares could be negatively affected by sales of substantial amounts of our common shares in the public markets.
As of February 6, 2015, there were 80,949,815 shares issued and outstanding, all of which are freely transferable, except for any shares held by our “affiliates,” as that term is defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). Approximately 30% of our outstanding common shares are held by our affiliates and can be resold into the public markets in the future in accordance with the requirements of Rule 144 under the Securities Act.
One affiliate, Marubeni, currently holds 20.7% of our outstanding common shares. Beginning in July 2016, or earlier upon the occurrence of certain events set forth in the Shareholders Agreement, Marubeni and permitted third-party transferees have the ability to cause us to register the resale of their common shares into the public markets. Another investor, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, currently holds approximately 9.7% of our outstanding common shares and has the ability to cause us to register the resale of their common shares into the public markets.
The issuance of additional common shares in connection with acquisitions or otherwise will dilute all other shareholdings.
As of February 6, 2015, we had an aggregate of 153,830,472 common shares authorized but unissued and not reserved for issuance under our incentive plan. We may issue all of these common shares without any action or approval by our shareholders. We intend to continue to actively pursue acquisitions of aviation assets and may issue common shares in connection with these acquisitions. Any common shares issued in connection with our acquisitions, our incentive plan, and the exercise of outstanding share options or otherwise would dilute the percentage ownership held by existing shareholders.
Risks Related to Taxation
If Aircastle were treated as engaged in a trade or business in the United States, it would be subject to U.S. federal income taxation on a net income basis, which would adversely affect our business and result in decreased cash available for distribution to our shareholders.
If, contrary to expectations, Aircastle were treated as engaged in a trade or business in the United States, the portion of its net income, if any, that was “effectively connected” with such trade or business would be subject to U.S. federal income taxation at a maximum rate of 35%. In addition, Aircastle would be subject to the U.S. federal branch profits tax on its effectively connected earnings and profits at a rate of 30%. The imposition of such taxes would adversely affect our business and would result in decreased cash available for distribution to our shareholders.
If there is not sufficient trading in our shares, or if 50% of our shares are held by certain 5% shareholders, we could lose our eligibility for an exemption from U.S. federal income taxation on rental income from our aircraft used in “international traffic” and could be subject to U.S. federal income taxation which would adversely affect our business and result in decreased cash available for distribution to our shareholders.
We expect that we are currently eligible for an exemption under Section 883 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), which provides an exemption from U.S. federal income taxation with respect to rental income derived from aircraft used in international traffic by certain foreign corporations. No assurances can be given that we will continue to be eligible for this exemption as our stock is traded on the market and changes in our ownership or the amount of our shares that are traded could cause us to cease to be eligible for such exemption. To qualify for this exemption in respect of rental income, the lessor of the aircraft must be organized in a country that grants a comparable exemption to U.S. lessors (Bermuda and Ireland each do), and certain other requirements must be satisfied. We can satisfy these requirements in any year if, for more than half the days of such year, our shares are primarily and regularly traded on a recognized exchange and certain shareholders, each of whom owns 5% or more of our shares (applying certain attribution rules), do not collectively own more than 50% of our shares. Our shares will be considered to be primarily and regularly traded on a recognized exchange in any year if (i) the number of trades in our shares effected on such recognized stock exchanges exceed the number of our shares (or direct interests in our shares) that are traded during the year on all securities markets; (ii) trades in our shares are effected on such stock exchanges in more than de minimis quantities on at least 60 days during every calendar quarter in the year; and (iii) the aggregate number of our shares traded on such stock exchanges during the taxable year is at least 10% of the average number of our shares outstanding in that class during that year. If our shares cease to satisfy these requirements, then we may no longer be eligible for the Section 883 exemption with respect to rental income earned by aircraft used in international traffic. If we were not eligible for the exemption under Section 883 of the Code, we expect that the U.S. source rental income of Aircastle Bermuda generally would be subject to U.S. federal taxation, on a gross income basis, at a rate of not in excess of 4% as provided in Section 887 of the Code. If, contrary to expectations, Aircastle Bermuda did not comply with certain administrative guidelines of the Internal Revenue Service, such that 90% or more of Aircastle Bermuda’s U.S. source rental income were attributable to the activities of personnel based in the United States, Aircastle Bermuda’s U.S. source rental income would be treated as income effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business in the United States. In such case, Aircastle Bermuda’s U.S. source rental income would be subject to U.S. federal income taxation on its net income at a maximum rate of 35% as well as state and local taxation. In addition, Aircastle Bermuda would be subject to the U.S. federal branch profits tax on its effectively connected earnings and profits
at a rate of 30%. The imposition of such taxes would adversely affect our business and would result in decreased cash available for distribution to our shareholders.
One or more of our Irish subsidiaries could fail to qualify for treaty benefits, which would subject certain of their income to U.S. federal income taxation, which would adversely affect our business and result in decreased cash available for distribution to our shareholders.
Qualification for the benefits of the double tax treaty between the United States and Ireland (the “Irish Treaty”) depends on many factors, including being able to establish the identity of the ultimate beneficial owners of our common shares. Each of the Irish subsidiaries may not satisfy all the requirements of the Irish Treaty and thereby may not qualify each year for the benefits of the Irish Treaty or may be deemed to have a permanent establishment in the United States. Moreover, the provisions of the Irish Treaty may change. Failure to so qualify, or to be deemed to have a permanent establishment in the United States, could result in the rental income from aircraft used for flights within the United States being subject to increased U.S. federal income taxation. The imposition of such taxes would adversely affect our business and would result in decreased cash available for distribution to our shareholders.
We may become subject to an increased rate of Irish taxation which would adversely affect our business and would result in decreased earnings available for distribution to our shareholders.
Our Irish subsidiaries and affiliates are expected to be subject to corporation tax on their income from leasing, managing and servicing aircraft at the 12.5% tax rate applicable to trading income. This expectation is based on certain assumptions, including that we will maintain at least the current level of our business operations in Ireland. If we are not successful in achieving trading status in Ireland, the income of our Irish subsidiaries and affiliates will be subject to corporation tax at the 25% rate applicable to non-trading activities, which would adversely affect our business and would result in decreased earnings available for distribution to our shareholders.
We may be subject to an increased rate of Singapore taxation which would adversely affect our business and would result in decreased earnings available for distribution to our shareholders.
Our Singapore subsidiaries are subject to Singapore income tax on their income from leasing, managing and servicing aircraft. Singapore's authorities have awarded our Singapore subsidiaries a reduced rate of tax until July 2017, provided that we satisfy certain conditions and requirements. If we cannot meet such conditions and requirements, or if the award is not renewed, we would be subject to additional Singapore income tax. This would adversely affect our business and would result in decreased earnings available for distribution to our shareholders.
We may become subject to income or other taxes in the non-U.S. jurisdictions in which our aircraft operate, where our lessees are located or where we perform certain services which would adversely affect our business and result in decreased cash available for distributions to shareholders.
Certain Aircastle entities are expected to be subject to the income tax laws of Ireland, Mauritius, Singapore and the United States. In addition, we may be subject to income or other taxes in other jurisdictions by reason of our activities and operations, where our aircraft operate or where the lessees of our aircraft (or others in possession of our aircraft) are located. Although we have adopted operating procedures to reduce the exposure to such taxation, we may be subject to such taxes in the future and such taxes may be substantial. In addition, if we do not follow separate operating guidelines relating to managing a portion of our aircraft portfolio through offices in Ireland and Singapore, income from aircraft not owned in such jurisdictions would be subject to local tax. Changes in tax law could impose withholding taxes on lease payments during the term of a lease. Our leases typically require our lessees to indemnify us in respect of taxes but some leases may not require such indemnification or a lessee may fail to make such indemnification payment. The imposition of such taxes could adversely affect our business and result in decreased earnings available for distribution to our shareholders.
We expect to continue to be a passive foreign investment company (“PFIC”) and may be a controlled foreign corporation (“CFC”), for U.S. federal income tax purposes.
We expect to continue to be treated as a PFIC and may be a CFC for U.S. federal income tax purposes. If you are a U.S. person and do not make a qualified electing fund (“QEF”) election with respect to us and each of our PFIC subsidiaries, unless we are a CFC and you own 10% of our voting shares, you would be subject to special deferred tax and interest charges with respect to certain distributions on our common shares, any gain realized on a disposition of our common shares and certain other events. The effect of these deferred tax and interest charges could be materially adverse to you. Alternatively,
if you are such a shareholder and make a QEF election for us and each of our PFIC subsidiaries, or if we are a CFC and you own 10% or more of our voting shares, you will not be subject to those charges, but could recognize taxable income in a taxable year with respect to our common shares in excess of any distributions that we make to you in that year, thus giving rise to so-called “phantom income” and to a potential out-of-pocket tax liability.
Distributions made to a U.S. person that is an individual will not be eligible for taxation at reduced tax rates generally applicable to dividends paid by certain United States corporations and “qualified foreign corporations” on or after January 1, 2003. The more favorable rates applicable to regular corporate dividends could cause individuals to perceive investment in our shares to be relatively less attractive than investment in the shares of other corporations, which could adversely affect the value of our shares.
ITEM 1B.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.
ITEM 2.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
We lease approximately 19,200 square feet of office space in Stamford, Connecticut for our corporate operations. The lease for the Stamford facility expires in December, 2022. We lease approximately 3,380 square feet of office space in Dublin, Ireland for our acquisition, aircraft leasing and asset management operations in Europe. The lease for the Irish facility expires in June 2016. We lease approximately 2,600 square feet of office space in Singapore for our acquisition, aircraft leasing and asset management operations in Asia. The lease for the Singapore facility expires in July 2016.
We believe our current facilities are adequate for our current needs and that suitable additional space will be available as and when needed.
ITEM 3.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
The Company is not a party to any material legal or adverse regulatory proceedings.
ITEM 4.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not applicable.
Executive Officers of the Registrant
Executive officers are elected by our board of directors, and their terms of office continue until the next annual meeting of the board or until their successors are elected and have been duly qualified. There are no family relationships among our executive officers.
Set forth below is information pertaining to our executive officers who held office as of February 6, 2015:
Ron Wainshal, 50, became our Chief Executive Officer in May 2005 and a member of our Board in May 2010. Prior to joining Aircastle, Mr. Wainshal was in charge of the Asset Management group of General Electric Capital Aviation Services (“GECAS”) from 2003 to 2005. After joining GECAS in 1998, Ron led many of GECAS’ U.S. airline restructuring efforts and its bond market activities, and played a major marketing and structured finance role in the Americas. Before joining GECAS, he was a principal and co-owner of a financial advisory company specializing in transportation infrastructure from 1994 to 1998 and prior to that held positions at Capstar Partners and The Transportation Group in New York and Ryder System in Miami. He received a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth Graduate School of Business. Mr. Wainshal is a director of Everyware Global, Inc.
Michael Inglese, 53, became our Chief Financial Officer in April 2007. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Inglese served as an Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of PanAmSat Holding Corporation, where he served as
Chief Financial Officer from June 2000 until the closing of PanAmSat’s sale to Intelsat in July 2006. Mr. Inglese joined PanAmSat in May 1998 as Vice President, Finance after serving as Chief Financial Officer for DIRECTV Japan, Inc. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst who holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rutgers University College of Engineering and his MBA from Rutgers Graduate School of Business Management.
Michael Kriedberg, 53, became our Chief Commercial Officer in April 2013. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Kriedberg served as an Executive Vice President, Aviation Financing Operations of GECAS from August 2009. From January 2008 to August 2009, Mr. Kriedberg was the Chief Investment Officer of GE Capital Corporation (“GECC”) and President of the Bank Loan Group division of GECC from August 2006 to January 2008. Mr. Kriedberg holds a bachelor degree in Economics from SUNY Albany and a Master’s degree in Accounting from Pace University.
Christopher L. Beers, 50, became our General Counsel in November 2014. Prior to joining Aircastle, Mr. Beers held senior positions at GE Capital since 2000, including Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel at GECAS from 2009 to 2014, and Senior Vice President and General Counsel of GE Transportation Finance from 2006 to 2009. Previously, Mr. Beers was a Senior Associate at the law firm of Milbank Tweed Hadley and McCloy in New York City. Mr. Beers holds a BS in Economics from Arizona State University and a JD from Pace Law School.
Joseph Schreiner, 57, became our Executive Vice President, Technical in October 2004. Prior to joining Aircastle, Mr. Schreiner oversaw the technical department at AAR Corp, a provider of products and services to the aviation and defense industries from 1998 to 2004 where he managed aircraft and engine evaluations and inspections, aircraft lease transitions, reconfiguration and heavy maintenance. Prior to AAR, Mr. Schreiner spent 19 years at Boeing (McDonnell-Douglas) in various technical management positions. Mr. Schreiner received a BS from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Pepperdine University.
Aaron Dahlke, 46, became our Chief Accounting Officer in June 2005. Prior to that, Mr. Dahlke was Vice President and Controller of Boullioun Aviation Services Inc. from January 2003 to May 2005. Prior to Boullioun, Mr. Dahlke was at ImageX.com, Inc. and Ernst & Young LLP. He received a B.S. in Accounting from California State University, San Bernardino. He is a Certified Public Accountant.
PART II
ITEM 5.
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTER AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Our common shares are listed for trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “AYR.” As of February 6, 2015, there were approximately 20,710 record holders of our common shares.
The following table sets forth the quarterly high and low prices of our common shares on the New York Stock Exchange for the periods indicated since our initial public offering and dividends during such periods:
Our ability to pay, maintain or increase cash dividends to our shareholders is subject to the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on many factors, including the difficulty we may experience in raising capital in a market that has experienced significant volatility in recent years and our ability to finance our aircraft acquisition commitments; our ability to negotiate favorable lease and other contractual terms; the level of demand for our aircraft; the economic condition of the commercial aviation industry generally; the financial condition and liquidity of our lessees; the lease rates we are able to charge and realize; our leasing costs; unexpected or increased expenses; the level and timing of capital expenditures; principal repayments and other capital needs; the value of our aircraft portfolio; our compliance with loan to value, debt service coverage, interest rate coverage and other financial covenants in our financings; our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity; general business conditions; restrictions imposed by our securitizations or other financings; legal restrictions on the payment of dividends, including a statutory dividend test and other limitations under Bermuda law; and other factors that our board of directors deems relevant. Some of these factors are beyond our control and a change in any such factor could affect our ability to pay dividends on our common shares. In the future we may not choose to pay dividends or may not be able to pay dividends, maintain our current level of dividends, or increase them over time. Increases in demand for our aircraft and operating lease payments may not occur and may not increase our actual cash available for dividends to our common shareholders. The failure to maintain or pay dividends may adversely affect our share price.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
During the fourth quarter of 2014, we purchased our common shares as follows:
______________
(a) On October 31, 2014, our Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of $100.0 million of the Company's common shares.
(b) Reflects the repurchase of unvested common shares from two former employees of the Company.
Performance Graph
The following stock performance graph shall not be deemed “filed” with the SEC or subject to Section 18 of the Exchange Act, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference in any of our filings under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
The following graph compares the cumulative five year total return to holders of our common shares relative to the cumulative total returns of the S&P 500 Index and a customized peer group over the five year period ended December 31, 2014. The peer group consists of three companies: AerCap Holdings NV (NYSE: AER), Air Lease Corporation (NYSE: AL) and FLY Leasing Limited (NYSE: FLY). An investment of $100 (with reinvestment of all dividends) is assumed to have been made in our common shares, the S&P 500 Index and in the peer group on December 31, 2009, and the relative performance of each is tracked through December 31, 2014. The stock performance shown on the graph below represents historical stock performance and is not necessarily indicative of future stock price performance.
* $100 invested on 12/31/09 in stock or index, including reinvestment of dividends.
ITEM 6.
ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
The selected historical consolidated financial, operating and other data as of December 31, 2013 and 2014 and for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2014 presented in this table are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report. The selected consolidated financial data as of December 31, 2010 and 2011 presented in this table are derived from our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes thereto, which are not included in this Annual Report. You should read these tables along with Item 7.
ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
This management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. You should read the following discussion in conjunction with Item 6 - “Selected Financial Data” and our historical consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto appearing elsewhere in this report. The results of operations for the periods reflected herein are not necessarily indicative of results that may be expected for future periods, and our actual results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including but not limited to those described under Item 1A. - “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this report. Please see “Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995” for a discussion of the uncertainties, risks and assumptions associated with these statements. Our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with US GAAP and, unless otherwise indicated, the other financial information contained in this report has also been prepared in accordance with US GAAP. Unless otherwise indicated, all references to “dollars” and “$” in this report are to, and all monetary amounts in this report are presented in, U.S. dollars.
OVERVIEW
We acquire, lease, and sell commercial jet aircraft with large, global operator bases and long useful lives. As of December 31, 2014, our aircraft portfolio consisted of 148 aircraft that were leased to 54 lessees located in 34 countries. We also may occasionally make investments in other aviation assets, including debt investments secured by commercial jet aircraft. Our aircraft fleet is managed by an experienced team based in the United States, Ireland and Singapore. As of December 31, 2014, the net book value of our flight equipment and finance lease aircraft was $5.69 billion compared to $5.19 billion at the end of 2013. Our revenues and net income for the year ended December 31, 2014 were $818.6 million and $100.8 million respectively, and for the fourth quarter 2014 were $238.3 million and $72.8 million, respectively.
Revenues
Our revenues are comprised primarily of operating lease rentals on flight equipment held for lease, revenue from retained maintenance payments related to lease expirations, lease termination payments, lease incentive amortization and interest recognized from finance leases.
Typically, our aircraft are subject to net leases whereby the lessee pays lease rentals and is generally responsible for maintaining the aircraft and paying operational, maintenance and insurance costs arising during the term of the lease. Our aircraft lease agreements generally provide for the periodic payment of a fixed amount of rent over the life of the lease and the amount of the contracted rent will depend upon the type, age, specification and condition of the aircraft and market conditions at the time the lease is committed. The amount of rent we receive will depend on a number of factors, including the credit-worthiness of our lessees and the occurrence of delinquencies, restructurings and defaults. Our lease rental revenues are also affected by the extent to which aircraft are off-lease and our ability to remarket aircraft that are nearing the end of their leases in order to minimize their off-lease time. Our success in re-leasing aircraft is affected by market conditions relating to our aircraft and by general industry conditions and trends. An increase in the percentage of off-lease aircraft or a reduction in lease rates upon remarketing would negatively impact our revenues.
Under an operating lease, the lessee will be responsible for performing maintenance on the relevant aircraft and will typically be required to make payments to us for heavy maintenance, overhaul or replacement of certain high-value components of the aircraft. These maintenance payments are based on hours or cycles of utilization or on calendar time, depending upon the component, and would be made either monthly in arrears or at the end of the lease term. For maintenance payments made monthly in arrears during a lease term, we will typically be required to reimburse all or a portion of these payments to the lessee upon their completion of the relevant heavy maintenance, overhaul or parts replacement. We record maintenance payments paid by the lessee during a lease as accrued maintenance liabilities in recognition of our obligation in the lease to refund such payments, and therefore we do not recognize maintenance revenue during the lease. Maintenance revenue recognition would occur at the end of a lease, when we are able to determine the amount, if any, by which reserve payments received exceed the amount we are required under the lease to reimburse to the lessee for heavy maintenance, overhaul or parts replacement. The amount of maintenance revenue we recognize in any reporting period is inherently volatile and is dependent upon a number of factors, including the timing of lease expiries, including scheduled and unscheduled expiries, the timing of maintenance events and the utilization of the aircraft by the lessee.
Many of our leases contain provisions which may require us to pay a portion of the lessee's costs for heavy maintenance, overhaul or replacement of certain high-value components. We account for these expected payments as lease incentives, which are amortized as a reduction of revenue over the life of the lease. We estimate the amount of our portion for such costs, typically for the first major maintenance event for the airframe, engines, landing gear and auxiliary power units, expected to be paid to the lessee based on assumed utilization of the related aircraft by the lessee, the anticipated cost of the maintenance event and the estimated amounts the lessee is responsible to pay.
This estimated lease incentive is not recognized as a lease incentive liability at the inception of the lease. We recognize the lease incentive as a reduction of lease revenue on a straight-line basis over the life of the lease, with the offset being recorded as a lease incentive liability which is included in maintenance payments on the balance sheet. The payment to the lessee for the lease incentive liability is first recorded against the lease incentive liability and any excess above the lease incentive liability is recorded as a prepaid lease incentive asset which is included in other assets on the balance sheet and continues to amortize over the remaining life of the lease.
Operating Expenses
Operating expenses are comprised of depreciation of flight equipment held for lease, interest expense, selling, general and administrative expenses, aircraft impairment charges and maintenance and other costs. Because our operating lease terms generally require the lessee to pay for operating, maintenance and insurance costs, our portion of maintenance and other costs relating to aircraft reflected in our statement of income primarily relates to expenses for unscheduled lease terminations.
Income Tax Provision
We have obtained an assurance from the Minister of Finance of Bermuda under the Exempted Undertakings Tax Protection Act 1966 that, in the event that any legislation is enacted in Bermuda imposing any tax computed on profits or income, or computed on any capital asset, gain or appreciation or any tax in the nature of estate duty or inheritance tax, such tax shall not, until March 2035, be applicable to us or to any of our operations or to our shares, debentures or other obligations except insofar as such tax applies to persons ordinarily resident in Bermuda or to any taxes payable by us in respect of real property owned or leased by us in Bermuda. Consequently, the provision for income taxes recorded relates to income earned by certain subsidiaries of the Company which are located in, or earn income in, jurisdictions that impose income taxes, primarily Ireland, Singapore and the United States.
All of our aircraft-owning subsidiaries that are recognized as corporations for U.S. tax purposes are non-U.S. corporations. These non-U.S. subsidiaries generally earn income from sources outside the United States and typically are not subject to U.S. federal, state or local income taxes, unless they operate within the U.S., in which case they may be subject to federal, state and local income taxes. The aircraft owning subsidiaries resident in Ireland, Mauritius and Singapore are subject to tax in those respective jurisdictions.
We have a U.S.-based subsidiary which provides management services to our non-U.S. subsidiaries and is subject to U.S. federal, state and local income taxes. We also have Ireland and Singapore based subsidiaries which provide management services to our non-U.S. subsidiaries and are subject to tax in those respective jurisdictions.
Segments
We operate in one segment.
Acquisitions and Sales
During 2014, we acquired 35 aircraft for $1.77 billion, including 21 aircraft for $749.2 million during the fourth quarter. Approximately 74% of our 2014 acquisitions by value were aircraft less than five years old that are on long term leases with relatively strong operators. Additionally, we acquired $467.4 million in mid-aged narrow-body aircraft, including a 12 aircraft purchase and lease-back transaction with a major European flag carrier. In many cases, we believe we were successful in winning business due to our ability to move quickly and reliably given our cash resources and team strengths.
At December 31, 2014, we had commitments to acquire 16 aircraft for $686.0 million, including four 777-300ER aircraft which were part of our previously announced purchase/lease-back transaction with LATAM. Our commitment to acquire the LATAM 777 aircraft expired in January 2015, as the airline was unable to economically unwind its existing financings for these aircraft. As of February 6, 2015, after taking into account two aircraft acquisitions for $119.0 million
thus far in 2015, we now have commitments to acquire 11 aircraft for $298.8 million that we expect to complete by June 30, 2015.
During 2014, we sold 47 aircraft for $833.0 million, which resulted in a net gain of $23.1 million. We repaid debt associated with this flight equipment in the amount of $50.2 million.
Nineteen of our 2014 dispositions were "exit sales" of aircraft nearing the end of their economic lives. Exit sales usually follow from a determination that the best economic decision for an aircraft is to sell it as it reaches lease expiry rather than to reinvest and enable a follow-on lease. In most cases, exit sales aircraft involved older generation technology; the average age of these aircraft was 22 years.
We consider 25 of our aircraft sales as "opportunistic" as they were intended to capture strong market demand and enabled us to realize gains. They generally represent situations where we believe we can deploy our capital more efficiently by reinvesting in other assets. These opportunistic asset sales were a mix of mid-aged narrow-body and wide-body aircraft with an average age of 16.4 years.
We also sold three relatively new aircraft to our joint venture with Teachers’ which are included in the “opportunistic” category in the table below. More specifically, our sales to the Teachers’ joint venture consisted of two Boeing 777-300ER aircraft leased to LATAM and Thai Airways, respectively, and one Embraer E195 aircraft leased to Azul Airlines. We utilize this joint venture vehicle to enable us to pursue larger transactions and to manage exposure concentrations.
Finally, as part of our strategy to reduce our freighter fleet, we classified two older 747-400 converted freighter aircraft as “Flight Equipment Held for Sale” during 2014. One of these aircraft was sold in January 2015 and the other is under a consignment contract and is under a consignment contract and is in the process of being parted out.
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(1) Included in Amortization of lease premiums, discounts and lease incentives on our consolidated statement of income.
(2) Included in Flight equipment held for sale in Other assets on our consolidated balance sheet.
The following table sets forth certain information with respect to the aircraft owned by us as of December 31, 2012, 2013 and 2014:
AIRCASTLE AIRCRAFT INFORMATION (dollars in millions)
____________
(1)
Calculated using net book value of flight equipment held for lease and net investment in finance leases as at period end.
(2)
Weighted average age (years) by net book value.
(3)
Weighted average remaining lease term (years) by net book value.
(4)
Aircraft on-lease days as a percent of total days in period weighted by net book value.
(5)
Lease rental revenue for the period as a percent of the average net book value of flight equipment held for lease for the period.
Our owned aircraft portfolio as of December 31, 2014 is listed in Exhibit 99.1 to this report.
PORTFOLIO DIVERSIFICATION
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(1)
Consists of one Airbus A320-200 aircraft which was subject to a commitment to lease and was delivered to our customer in February 2015.
Our largest customer represents 7% of the net book value of flight equipment held for lease (includes net book value of flight equipment held for lease and net investment in finance leases) at December 31, 2014. Our top 15 customers for aircraft we owned at December 31, 2014, representing 65 aircraft and 62% of the net book value of flight equipment held for lease, are as follows:
(1) Martinair is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air France-KLM. If combined with one other affiliated customer, the two customers represents 5% of flight equipment held for lease.
(2) Guaranteed by Volga-Dnepr Airlines.
Finance
Aircastle is a publicly listed company that has been trading on the New York Stock Exchange since August 2006. Since our inception in late 2004, we have raised approximately $1.7 billion in equity capital from private and public investors as well as approximately $11.2 billion in debt capital for both growth and refinancing purposes through export credit agency-backed debt, commercial bank debt, the aircraft securitization markets and the unsecured bond market. This debt capital has been sourced from a variety of providers demonstrating our funding expertise and flexibility in adapting to changing capital markets conditions.
We intend to fund new investments through cash on hand, funds generated from operations, maintenance payments received from lessees, secured borrowings for aircraft, draws on our Revolving Credit Facility and proceeds from any future aircraft sales. We may repay all or a portion of such borrowings from time to time with the net proceeds from subsequent long-term debt financings, additional equity offerings or cash generated from operations and asset sales. Therefore, our ability to execute our business strategy, particularly the acquisition of additional commercial jet aircraft or other aviation assets, depends to a significant degree on our ability to obtain additional debt and equity capital on terms we deem attractive.
See “Liquidity and Capital Resources - Secured Debt Financings” and ”Liquidity and Capital Resources - Unsecured Debt Financings” below.
Comparison of the year ended December 31, 2013 to the year ended December 31, 2014:
Revenues:
Total revenues increased by 15.5%, or $110.0 million, for the year ended December 31, 2014 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2013, primarily as a result of the following:
Lease rental revenue. The increase in lease rental revenue of $69.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2014 as compared to the same period in 2013 was primarily the result of:
•
$158.7 million of revenue reflecting the full year impact of 17 aircraft purchased in 2013 and the impact of 34 aircraft purchased in 2014; and
•
$10.6 million due to lease extensions, amendments and transitions.
This increase was offset partially by a decrease in lease rental revenue of:
•
$92.4 million due to aircraft sales; and
•
$7.2 million from the effect of lease terminations and other changes.
Finance lease revenue: For the year ended December 31, 2014, $10.9 million of interest income from finance leases was recognized as compared to $16.2 million of interest income from finance leases recorded for the same period in 2013 due to the sale of six aircraft during the second quarter of 2014.
Amortization of net lease discounts and lease incentives.
As more fully described above under “Revenues”, lease incentives represent our estimated portion of the lessee’s cost for heavy maintenance, overhaul or replacement of certain high-value components which is amortized over the life of the related lease. As we enter into new leases, the amortization of lease incentives generally increases and, conversely, if a related lease terminates, the related unused lease incentive liability will reduce the amortization of lease incentives. The decrease in amortization of lease incentives of $18.8 million primarily resulted from five unscheduled lease transitions, two scheduled lease transitions and one change in lease incentive estimate as compared with ten unscheduled lease transitions, three scheduled lease transitions, and one change in lease incentive estimate in 2013.
As more fully described above under “Revenues”, lease discounts represent the present value of the amount below current lease rates for acquired aircraft with attached leases. The increase in amortization of lease discounts of $7.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2014 as compared to the same period in 2013 primarily resulted from additional amortization on six aircraft purchased in 2014 and the full year amortization from four aircraft purchased in 2013.
Maintenance revenue.
Unscheduled lease terminations. For the year ended December 31, 2014, we recorded maintenance revenue totaling $45.4 million from unscheduled lease terminations primarily associated with ten aircraft returned in 2014. Comparatively, for the same period in 2013, we recorded maintenance revenue totaling $47.7 million from unscheduled lease terminations associated with ten aircraft returned in 2013.
Scheduled lease terminations. For the year ended December 31, 2014, we recorded maintenance revenue from scheduled lease terminations totaling $42.6 million associated with 25 aircraft. Comparatively, for the same period in 2013, we recorded $20.6 million, associated with maintenance revenue from seven scheduled lease terminations.
Other revenue was $11.2 million during the year ended December 31, 2014, which was primarily due to approximately $10.2 million recognized in additional fees paid by lessees in connection with early termination of 14 leases and approximately $1.0 million in administrative fees from the joint venture with Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. For the year ended December 31, 2013, other revenue was $11.6 million which was primarily due to $1.7 million of interest income on our debt investments and approximately $9.9 million recognized in additional fees paid by lessees in connection with the early termination of 13 leases.
Operating Expenses:
Total operating expenses decreased by 2.6%, or $18.3 million, for the year ended December 31, 2014 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2013 primarily as a result of the following:
Depreciation expense increased by $14.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2014 over the same period in 2013. The net increase is primarily the result of:
•
a $54.1 million increase in depreciation for aircraft acquired; and
•
a $3.7 million increase due to changes to asset lives and residual values.
This increase was offset by:
•
a $40.8 million decrease in depreciation for aircraft sales; and
•
a $2.6 million decrease due to capitalized aircraft improvements being fully depreciated.
Interest, net consisted of the following:
______________
(1)
For the year ended December 31, 2013, includes the loan termination fee of $2,954 related to two ECA aircraft sold in June 2013.
(2)
For the year ended December 31, 2013, includes the write-off of deferred financing fees of $3,975 related to the repayment of two ECA Financings.
Interest, net decreased by $5.4 million, or 2.2%, over the year ended December 31, 2013. The net decrease is primarily a result of:
•
a $7.0 million decrease in interest expense on our borrowings driven by loan breakage fees of $3.0 million in connection with the early repayment of two ECA loans in 2013 and a $4.0 million decrease due primarily to a lower weighted average interest rate on our borrowings; and
•
a $0.8 million decrease in amortization of deferred financing fees primarily due to the write-off of fees related to the early repayment of two ECA loans in June 2013.
These decreases were partially offset by:
•
a $1.7 million increase in amortization of deferred losses related to terminated interest rate derivatives reflecting the repayment of Securitization No. 1.
Selling, general and administrative expenses for the year ended December 31, 2014 increased by $2.3 million or 4.4% over the same period in 2013 primarily due to an increase in personnel costs. Non-cash share based expense was $4.6 million and $4.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2014, respectively.
Impairment of aircraft was $94.0 million during the year ended December 31, 2014, See “Summary of Impairments and Recoverability Assessment” below for a detailed discussion of the related impairment charge for these aircraft.
Impairment of aircraft was $117.3 million during the year ended December 31, 2013.
Maintenance and other costs were $7.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2014, a decrease of $6.4 million over the same period in 2013. The net decrease is primarily related to lower maintenance costs of $3.4 million related to unscheduled
terminations for the year ended December 31, 2013 and $3.6 million related to scheduled terminations versus the same period in 2013. This decrease is partially offset by an increase of $0.6 million in maintenance costs attributable to scheduled terminations and returns as well as other routine costs such as inspections.
Other Income (Expense):
Total other income (expense) for the year ended December 31, 2014 was $12.2 million expense as compared to $43.4 million of income the same period in 2013. The decrease of $55.6 million is primarily a result of:
Gain on sale of flight equipment consisted of 28 "opportunistic" aircraft sales reflecting favorable current market conditions in 2014 versus eight in 2013. These sales are intended to capture strong market demand and enable us to realize gains and generally represent situations where we believe we can deploy our capital more efficiently by reinvesting in other assets.
Loss on sale of flight equipment consisted of 19 "exit sales" aircraft dispositions nearing the end of their economic lives versus 14 in 2013. Exit sales usually follow from a determination that the best economic decision for an aircraft is to sell it as it reaches lease expiry rather than to reinvest and enable a follow-on lease.
_______________
(1) Included in Amortization of lease premiums, discounts and lease incentives on our consolidated statement of income.
(2) Included in Flight equipment held for sale in Other assets on our consolidated balance sheet.
Loss on extinguishment of debt of $36.6 million relates to the early payment of our 9.75% Senior Notes due 2018 in April, 2014.
Other decreased by $4.9 million, primarily related to the mark to market value of an undesignated interest rate derivative.
Income Tax Provision:
Our provision for income taxes for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2014 was $9.2 million and $13.9 million, respectively. Income taxes have been provided based on the applicable tax laws and rates of those countries in which operations are conducted and income is earned, primarily Ireland, Singapore and the United States. The increase in our income tax provision of $4.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2014 as compared to the same period in 2013, was primarily attributable to changes in operating income subject to tax in Ireland, Singapore, the U.S. and other jurisdictions. The loss on extinguishment of debt in 2014 of $36.6 million related to Bermuda operations and provided no tax benefit. The impairment charge in 2013 of $117.3 million was related to Bermuda and Ireland, which resulted in a $2.0 million Irish tax benefit.
All of our aircraft-owning subsidiaries that are recognized as corporations for U.S. tax purposes are non-U.S. corporations. These non-U.S. subsidiaries generally earn income from sources outside the United States and typically are not subject to U.S. federal, state or local income taxes, unless they operate within the U.S., in which case they may be subject to federal, state and local income taxes. The aircraft owning subsidiaries resident in Ireland, Mauritius and Singapore are subject to tax in those respective jurisdictions.
We have a U.S.-based subsidiary which provides management services to our non-U.S. subsidiaries and is subject to U.S. federal, state and local income taxes. We also have Ireland and Singapore based subsidiaries which provide management services to our non-U.S. subsidiaries and are subject to tax in those respective jurisdictions.
The Company received an assurance from the Bermuda Minister of Finance that it would be exempted from local income, withholding and capital gains taxes until March 2035. Consequently, the provision for income taxes recorded relates to income earned by certain subsidiaries of the Company which are located in, or earn income in, jurisdictions that impose income taxes, primarily the United States and Ireland.
Other Comprehensive Income:
Other comprehensive income was $138.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2014, an increase of $58.1 million from the $80.2 million of other comprehensive income for the year ended December 31, 2013. Other comprehensive income for the year ended December 31, 2014 primarily consisted of:
•
$100.8 million of net income;
•
$2.5 million gain from a change in fair value of interest rate derivatives, net of taxes which is due primarily to net settlements for the year ended December 31, 2014 partially offset by a slight loss due to a downward shift in the 1 Month LIBOR forward curve; and
•
$35.0 million of amortization of deferred net losses reclassified into earnings primarily related to terminated interest rate derivatives.
Other comprehensive income for the year ended December 31, 2013 primarily consisted of:
•
$29.8 million of net income;
•
$17.1 million gain from a change in fair value of interest rate derivatives, net of taxes which is due primarily to net settlements for the year ended December 31, 2013 partially offset by a slight downward shift in the 1 Month LIBOR forward curve; and
•
$33.3 million of amortization of deferred net losses reclassified into earnings related to terminated interest rate derivatives.
The amount of loss expected to be reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive income into interest expense over the next 12 months consists of net interest settlements on active interest rate derivatives in the amount of $3.0 million and the amortization of deferred net losses from terminated interest rate derivatives in the amount of $23.4 million. See “Liquidity and Capital Resources - Hedging” below for more information on deferred net losses as related to terminated interest rate derivatives.
Comparison of the year ended December 31, 2012 to the year ended December 31, 2013:
Revenues:
Total revenues increased by 3.2%, or $22.1 million, for the year ended December 31, 2013 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2012, primarily as a result of the following:
Lease rental revenue. The increase in lease rental revenue of $21.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2013 as compared to the same period in 2012 was primarily the result of:
•
$103.0 million of revenue from the full year impact of 17 aircraft purchased in 2012 and the impact of 24 aircraft purchased in 2013.
This increase was offset partially by a decrease in revenue of:
•
$52.7 million due to aircraft sales;
•
$22.2 million due to lease extensions, amendments and transitions; and
•
$6.6 million from the effect of lease terminations and other changes.
Finance lease revenue: For the year ended December 31, 2013, $16.2 million of interest income from finance leases was recognized as compared to $8.4 million of interest income from finance leases recorded for the same period in 2012 due to the addition of two new finance leases in 2013 and the full year revenue from the 2012 additions.
Amortization of net lease discounts and lease incentives.
As more fully described above under "Revenues", lease incentives represent our estimated portion of the lessee’s cost for heavy maintenance, overhaul or replacement of certain high-value components, which is amortized over the life of the related lease. As we enter into new leases, the amortization of lease incentives generally increases, and conversely, if a related lease terminates, the related unused lease incentive liability will reduce the amortization of lease incentives. The increase in amortization of lease incentives of $16.0 million primarily resulted from ten unscheduled lease transitions, three scheduled lease transitions, and one change in lease incentive estimate as compared with eight unscheduled lease transitions, three scheduled lease transitions, two unscheduled changes in lease terms and one change in lease incentive estimate in 2012.
As more fully described above under "Revenues", lease premiums represent the present value of the amount above current lease rates for acquired aircraft with attached leases. The increase in amortization of lease premiums of $3.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2013 as compared to the same period in 2012 primarily resulted from additional amortization on seven aircraft purchased in 2013 and the full year amortization from five aircraft purchased in 2012.
Maintenance revenue.
Unscheduled lease terminations. For the year ended December 31, 2013, we recorded maintenance revenue of $47.7 million from unscheduled lease terminations primarily associated with ten aircraft returned in 2013. Comparatively, for the same period in 2012, we recorded maintenance revenue totaling $34.9 million from unscheduled lease terminations associated with ten aircraft returned in 2012.
Scheduled lease terminations. For the year ended December 31, 2013, we recorded maintenance revenue from scheduled lease terminations totaling $20.6 million associated with seven aircraft. Comparatively, for the same period in 2012, we recorded $18.4 million, associated with maintenance revenue from five scheduled lease terminations.
Other revenue was $11.6 million during the year ended December 31, 2013, which was primarily due to $1.7 million of interest income on our debt investments and approximately $9.9 million recognized in additional fees paid by lessees in connection with early termination of 13 leases. For the year ended December 31, 2012, other revenue was $14.2 million which was primarily due to additional fees paid by lessees in connection with the early termination of 11 leases.
Operating Expenses:
Total operating expenses increased by 9.3%, or $60.8 million, for the year ended December 31, 2013 as compared to the year ended December 31, 2012 primarily as a result of the following:
Depreciation expense increased by $15.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2013 over the same period in 2012. The net increase is primarily the result of:
•
a $28.3 million increase in depreciation for aircraft acquired; and
•
a $5.2 million increase due to changes to asset lives and residual values.
This increase was offset by:
•
a $15.5 million decrease in depreciation for aircraft sales; and
•
a $3.3 million decrease due to capitalized aircraft improvements being fully depreciated.
Interest, net consisted of the following:
______________
(1)
For the year ended December 31, 2013, includes the loan termination fee of $2,954 related to two ECA aircraft sold in June 2013.
(2)
For the year ended December 31, 2012, includes the write-off of deferred financing fees of $2,914 related to the pay-off of Term Financing No. 1 and $120 related to the replacement of the 2010 Revolving Credit Facility. For the year ended December 31, 2013, includes the write-off of deferred financing fees of $3,975 related to the repayment of two ECA Financings.
Interest, net increased by $20.9 million, or 9.4%, over the year ended December 31, 2012. The net increase is primarily a result of:
•
a $17.6 million increase in interest on our borrowings driven by loan breakage fees of $3.0 million in connection with the early repayment of two ECA Loans and the impact of higher weighted average debt outstanding ($3.46 billion for the year ended December 31, 2013 as compared to $3.12 billion for the year ended December 31, 2012) of $19.4 million, partially offset by the effect of lower rates during the same period in the prior year of $4.8 million;
•
a $2.5 million increase in the amortization of deferred losses primarily due to deferred swap loss amortization related to the repayment of Term Financing in April 2012 and the repayment of two ECA loans in June 2013;
•
a $2.3 million increase in amortization of deferred financing fees primarily due to the write-off of fees related to the early repayment of two ECA loans in June 2013; and
•
a $1.3 million decrease in capitalized interest reflecting the final aircraft delivery from our A330 program in April 2012.
These increases were offset partially by:
•
a $2.5 million decrease resulting from changes in measured hedge ineffectiveness due to changes in our debt forecast.
Selling, general and administrative expenses for the year ended December 31, 2013 increased by $5.1 million or 10.5% over the same period in 2012 primarily due to an increase in the number of employees and greater stock compensation expense. Non-cash share based expense was $4.2 million and $4.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2013, respectively.
Impairment of aircraft was $117.3 million during the year ended December 31, 2013 related to six Boeing 747-400 converted freighters and one Boeing 737-700 aircraft, all of which did not pass their recoverability assessments and we recorded transactional impairments for four Boeing 767-300ER aircraft and one Airbus A319-100 aircraft.
Impairment of aircraft was $96.5 million during the year ended December 31, 2012, related to eight Boeing 737-300 / -400 aircraft, one Boeing 757-200 aircraft and five Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, one Airbus A310-300F aircraft and three Airbus A320-200 aircraft, all of which did not pass their recoverability assessments.
Maintenance and other costs were $13.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2013, a decrease of $1.0 million over the same period in 2012. The net decrease is primarily related to lower maintenance costs of $2.1 million related to unscheduled terminations for the year ended December 31, 2013 versus the same period in 2012. This decrease is partially offset by an increase of $1.3 million in maintenance costs attributable to scheduled terminations and returns as well as other routine costs such as inspections.
Other Income:
Total other income for the year ended December 31, 2013 was $43.4 million as compared to $6.3 million for the same period in 2012. The increase is primarily a result of $31.5 million increase in gains on sale of 22 aircraft sold in 2013 as compared to eight aircraft sold in 2012.
Gain on sale of flight equipment consisted of eight "opportunistic" aircraft sales reflecting favorable current market conditions in 2013 versus none in 2012. These sales are intended to capture strong market demand and enable us to realize gains and generally represent situations where we believe we can deploy our capital more efficiently by reinvesting in other assets.
Loss on sale of flight equipment consisted of 14 "exit sales" aircraft dispositions nearing the end of their economic lives in 2013 versus eight in 2012. Exit sales usually follow from a determination that the best economic decision for an aircraft is to sell it as it reaches lease expiry rather than to reinvest and enable a follow-on lease.
_______________
(1) Included in Amortization of lease premiums, discounts and lease incentives on our consolidated statement of income.
Income Tax Provision:
Our provision for income taxes for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2013 was $7.8 million and $9.2 million, respectively. Income taxes have been provided based on the applicable tax laws and rates of those countries in which operations are conducted and income is earned, primarily Ireland and the United States. The increase in our income tax provision of approximately $1.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2013 as compared to the same period in 2012 was primarily attributable to changes in operating income subject to tax in the U.S. and Ireland, and other jurisdictions. The impairment charge of $117.3 million was attributable to Bermuda and Ireland, which resulted in a $2.0 million Irish tax benefit.
All of our aircraft-owning subsidiaries that are recognized as corporations for U.S. tax purposes are non-U.S. corporations. These non-U.S. subsidiaries generally earn income from sources outside the United States and typically are not subject to U.S. federal, state or local income taxes, unless they operate within the U.S., in which case they may be
subject to federal, state and local income taxes. The aircraft owning subsidiaries resident in Ireland, Mauritius and Singapore are subject to tax in these jurisdictions.
We have a U.S.-based subsidiary which provides management services to our non-U.S. subsidiaries and is subject to U.S. federal, state and local income taxes. In addition, we have Ireland and Singapore based subsidiaries which provide management services to our non-U.S. subsidiaries and are subject to tax in those respective jurisdictions.
The Company received an assurance from the Bermuda Minister of Finance that it would be exempted from local income, withholding and capital gains taxes until March 2035. Consequently, the provision for income taxes recorded relates to income earned by certain subsidiaries of the Company which are located in, or earn income in, jurisdictions that impose income taxes, primarily the United States and Ireland.
Other Comprehensive Income:
Other comprehensive income was $80.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2013, a decrease of $14.1 million from the $94.3 million of other comprehensive income for the year ended December 31, 2012. Other comprehensive income for the year ended December 31, 2013 primarily consisted of:
•
$29.8 million of net income;
•
$17.1 million gain from a change in fair value of interest rate derivatives, net of taxes which is due primarily to net settlements for the year ended December 31, 2013, partially offset by a slight loss due to a downward shift in the 1 Month LIBOR forward curve; and
•
$33.3 million of amortization of deferred net losses reclassified into earnings primarily related to terminated interest rate derivatives.
Other comprehensive income for the year ended December 31, 2012 primarily consisted of:
•
$32.9 million of net income;
•
$30.6 million gain from a change in fair value of interest rate derivatives, net of taxes which is due primarily to net settlements for the year ended December 31, 2012, partially offset by a slight downward shift in the 1 Month LIBOR forward curve; and
•
$30.8 million of amortization of deferred net losses reclassified into earnings related to terminated interest rate derivatives.
Summary of Impairments and Recoverability Assessment
Annual Fleet-Wide Impairments
We perform our annual fleet-wide recoverability assessment during the third quarter of each year. This recoverability assessment is a comparison of the carrying value of each aircraft to its undiscounted expected future cash flows. We develop the assumptions used in the recoverability assessment, including those relating to current and future demand for each aircraft type, based on management's experience in the aircraft leasing industry as well as information received from third party sources. Estimates of the undiscounted cash flows for each aircraft type are impacted by changes in contracted and future expected lease rates, residual values, expected scrap values, economic conditions and other factors.
In the 2014 assessment, we reduced our forecast of future cash flows for certain freighter aircraft to reflect the cumulative effect of increasing supply of such aircraft over the past three years, relative to a modest increase in demand observed in 2014.
More specifically, we determined the cash flows expected to be generated by two of our McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighter aircraft did not support their carrying values. As a result, we impaired these two aircraft during the third quarter of 2014, which had an aggregate net book value as of June 30, 2014 of $53.8 million, writing down their book values by a total of $19.5 million. We also shortened their expected lives from 25 to 21 years and reduced their residual values.
In addition, for our five Boeing 747-400 production freighters, all of which passed the annual recoverability assessment in 2014, we shortened the expected lives from 35 years to 30 years from the date of manufacture.
For changes we made to our aircraft mentioned above and other adjustments to lives and/or residual values, we estimate an increase in depreciation expense for the year ended December 31, 2015 of approximately $7.8 million.
Other than the aircraft discussed above, management believes that the net book value of each aircraft is currently supported by the estimated future undiscounted cash flows expected to be generated by that aircraft, and accordingly, no other aircraft were impaired as a consequence of this recoverability assessment. However, if our expectations warrant, we may change our cash flow assumptions and require future impairment charges. While we believe that the estimates and related assumptions used in the recoverability assessment are appropriate, actual results could differ from those estimates.
Other Impairments
In addition to impairment from our fleet wide review, during 2014 we recorded impairment charges of $42.7 million on six passenger and one freighter aircraft that were returned to us early as a result of lease terminations or amendments which we refer to as “Transactional Impairments”. We recorded maintenance revenue of $42.5 million and other revenue of $0.5 million and reversed lease incentives of $0.5 million related to these aircraft.
We also recorded impairment charges of $30.9 million during 2014 related to two 747-400 converted freighter aircraft which we refer to as “Freighters Held for Sale”, and recorded maintenance revenue of $9.1 million and other revenue of $0.2 million and reversed lease incentives of $3.6 million related to these aircraft. One of these converted freighters was sold in January 2015 and the other is under a consignment contract and is in the process of being parted out.
A summary of Other Impairments for the year ended December 31, 2014 follows:
As part of our recoverability assessment during the third quarter of 2013, we impaired six Boeing 747-400 converted freighter aircraft and one Boeing 737-700 aircraft and recorded impairment charges of $88.6 million and $8.9 million, respectively.
In addition, during 2013 we recorded Transactional Impairment charges of $19.7 million on five passenger aircraft that were returned to us early as a result of lease terminations or amendments, which were partially offset by maintenance revenue of $28.2 million and other revenue of $1.8 million related to these aircraft.
Aircraft Monitoring List
At December 31, 2014, we considered five aircraft with a total net book value of $136.4 million, including four freighter aircraft with a total net book value of $116.6 million to be more susceptible to failing future recoverability assessments due to their sensitivity to changes in contractual cash flows, future cash flow estimates and aircraft residual or scrap values.
APPLICATION OF CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND ESTIMATES
Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations is based upon our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with US GAAP, which requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying footnotes. Our estimates and assumptions are based on historical experiences and currently available information. Actual results may differ from such estimates under different conditions, sometimes materially. A summary of our significant accounting policies is presented in the notes to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report. Critical accounting policies and estimates are defined as those that are both most important to the portrayal of our financial condition and results and require our most subjective judgments, estimates and assumptions. Our most critical accounting policies and estimates are described below.
Lease Revenue Recognition
Our operating lease rentals are recognized on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease. We will neither recognize revenue nor record a receivable from a customer when collectability is not reasonably assured. Estimating whether collectability is reasonably assured requires some level of subjectivity and judgment. When collectability is not reasonably assured, the customer is placed on non-accrual status and revenue is recognized when cash payments are received. Management determines whether customers should be placed on non-accrual status. When we are reasonably assured that payments will be received in a timely manner, the customer is placed on accrual status. The accrual/non-accrual status of a customer is maintained at a level deemed appropriate based on factors such as the customer’s credit rating, payment performance, financial condition and requests for modifications of lease terms and conditions. Events or circumstances outside of historical customer patterns can also result in changes to a customer’s accrual status.
Maintenance Payments and Maintenance Revenue
Under our leases, the lessee must pay operating expenses accrued or payable during the term of the lease, which would normally include maintenance, overhaul, fuel, crew, landing, airport and navigation charges; certain taxes, licenses, consents and approvals; aircraft registration; and insurance premiums. Typically, our aircraft are subject to net operating leases whereby the lessee pays lease rentals and is generally responsible for maintaining the aircraft and paying operational, maintenance and insurance costs, although in a majority of cases, we are obligated to pay a portion of specified maintenance or modification costs. Our aircraft lease agreements generally provide for the periodic payment of a fixed amount of rent over the life of the lease, and the amount of the contracted rent will depend upon the type, age, specification and condition of the aircraft and market conditions at the time the lease is committed. The amount of rent we receive will depend on a number of factors, including the credit-worthiness of our lessees and the occurrence of delinquencies, restructurings and defaults. Our lease rental revenues are also affected by the extent to which aircraft are off-lease and our ability to remarket aircraft that are nearing the end of their leases in order to minimize their off-lease time. Our success in re-leasing aircraft is affected by market conditions relating to our aircraft and by general industry conditions and trends. An increase in the percentage of off-lease aircraft or a reduction in lease rates upon remarketing would negatively impact our revenues.
Under an operating lease, the lessee will be responsible for performing maintenance on the relevant aircraft and will typically be required to make payments to us for heavy maintenance, overhaul or replacement of certain high-value components of the aircraft. These maintenance payments are based on hours or cycles of utilization or on calendar time, depending upon the component, and would be made either monthly in arrears or at the end of the lease term. For maintenance
payments made monthly in arrears during a lease term, we will typically be required to reimburse all or a portion of these payments to the lessee upon completion of the relevant heavy maintenance, overhaul or parts replacement. We record maintenance payments paid by the lessee during a lease as accrued maintenance liabilities in recognition of our obligation in the lease to refund such payments, and therefore we do not recognize maintenance revenue during the lease. Maintenance revenue recognition would occur at the end of a lease, when we are able to determine the amount, if any, by which reserve payments received exceed the amount we are required under the lease to reimburse to the lessee for heavy maintenance, overhaul or parts replacement. If a lease requires end of lease term maintenance payments, typically the lessee would be required to pay us for its utilization of the aircraft during the lease; however, in some cases, we may owe a net payment to the lessee in the event heavy maintenance is performed and paid for by the lessee during the lease term and the aircraft is returned to us in better condition that at lease inception. End of lease term maintenance payments made to us are recognized as maintenance revenue, and end of lease term maintenance payments we make to a lessee are recorded as contra maintenance revenue.
The amount of maintenance revenue or contra maintenance revenue we recognize in any reporting period is inherently volatile and is dependent upon a number of factors, including the timing of lease expiries, including scheduled and unscheduled expiries, the timing of maintenance events and the utilization of the aircraft by the lessee.
Lease Incentives and Amortization
Many of our leases contain provisions which may require us to pay a portion of the lessee’s costs for heavy maintenance, overhaul or replacement of certain high-value components. We account for these expected payments as lease incentives, which are amortized as a reduction of revenue over the life of the lease. We estimate the amount of our portion for such costs, typically for the first major maintenance event for the airframe, engines, landing gear and auxiliary power units, expected to be paid to the lessee based on assumed utilization of the related aircraft by the lessee, the anticipated cost of the maintenance event and the estimated amounts the lessee is responsible to pay.
This estimated lease incentive is not recognized as a lease incentive liability at the inception of the lease. We recognize the lease incentive as a reduction of lease revenue on a straight-line basis over the life of the lease, with the offset being recorded as a lease incentive liability, which is included in maintenance payments on the balance sheet. The payment to the lessee for the lease incentive liability is first recorded against the lease incentive liability, and any excess above the lease incentive liability is recorded as a prepaid lease incentive asset, which is included in other assets on the balance sheet and continues to amortize over the remaining life of the lease.
Flight Equipment Held for Lease and Depreciation
Flight equipment held for lease is stated at cost and depreciated using the straight-line method, typically over a 25 year life from the date of manufacture for passenger aircraft and over a 30- to 35- year life for freighter aircraft, depending on whether the aircraft is a converted or purpose-built freighter, to estimated residual values. Estimated residual values are generally determined to be approximately 15% of the manufacturer’s estimated realized price for passenger aircraft when new and 5% - 10% for freighter aircraft when new. Management may make exceptions to this policy on a case-by-case basis when, in its judgment, the residual value calculated pursuant to this policy does not appear to reflect current expectations of value. Examples of situations where exceptions may arise include but are not limited to:
•
flight equipment where estimates of the manufacturers' realized sales prices are not relevant (e.g., freighter conversions);
•
flight equipment where estimates of the manufacturers’ realized sales prices are not readily available; and
•
flight equipment which may have a shorter useful life due to obsolescence.
In accounting for flight equipment held for lease, we make estimates about the expected useful lives, the fair value of attached leases, acquired maintenance liabilities and the estimated residual values. In making these estimates, we rely upon actual industry experience with the same or similar aircraft types and our anticipated utilization of the aircraft. As part of our due diligence review of each aircraft we purchase, we prepare an estimate of the expected maintenance payments and any excess costs which may become payable by us, taking into consideration the then-current maintenance status of the aircraft and the relevant provisions of any existing lease.
For planned major maintenance activities for aircraft off-lease, the Company capitalizes the actual maintenance costs by applying the deferral method. Under the deferral method, we capitalize the actual cost of major maintenance events, which are depreciated on a straight-line basis over the period until the next maintenance event is required.
When we acquire an aircraft with a lease, determining the fair value of the attached lease requires us to make assumptions regarding the current fair values of leases for specific aircraft. We estimate a range of current lease rates of like aircraft in order to determine if the attached lease is within a fair value range. If a lease is below or above the range of current lease rates, we present value the estimated amount below or above fair value range over the remaining term of the lease. The resulting lease discount or premium is amortized into lease rental income over the remaining term of the lease.
Impairment of Flight Equipment
We perform a recoverability assessment of all aircraft in our fleet, on an aircraft-by-aircraft basis, at least annually. In addition, a recoverability assessment is performed whenever events or changes in circumstances, or indicators, indicate that the carrying amount or net book value of an asset may not be recoverable. Indicators may include, but are not limited to, a significant lease restructuring or early lease termination, significant air traffic decline, the introduction of newer technology aircraft or engines, an aircraft type is no longer in production or a significant airworthiness directive is issued. When we perform a recoverability assessment, we measure whether the estimated future undiscounted net cash flows expected to be generated by the aircraft exceed its net book value. The undiscounted cash flows consist of cash flows from currently contracted leases, future projected lease rates, transition costs, estimated down time and estimated residual or scrap values for an aircraft. In the event that an aircraft does not meet the recoverability test, the aircraft will be adjusted to fair value, resulting in an impairment charge.
Management develops the assumptions used in the recoverability analysis based on current and future expectations of the global demand for a particular aircraft type and historical experience in the aircraft leasing market and aviation industry, as well as information received from third party industry sources. The factors considered in estimating the undiscounted cash flows are impacted by changes in future periods due to changes in contracted lease rates, residual values, economic conditions, technology, airline demand for a particular aircraft type and many of the risk factors discussed in Item 1A. “Risk Factors.” See further discussion of our aircraft more susceptible to failing our recoverability assessment under "Summary of Impairments and Recoverability Assessment" above and “Fair Value Measurements” below.
Net Investment in Finance Leases
If a lease meets specific criteria at the inception of a new lease or at any lease modification date, we recognize the lease as a Net investment in finance leases on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. The net investment in finance leases consists of lease receivables, less the unearned income, plus the estimated unguaranteed residual value of the leased flight equipment at the lease end date. The unearned income is recognized as Finance lease revenue in our Consolidated Statements of Income over the lease term in a manner that produces a constant rate of return on the Net investment in finance lease.
Collectability of finance leases is evaluated periodically on an individual customer level. The evaluation of the collectability of the finance leases considers the credit of the lessee and the value of the underlying aircraft. An allowance for credit losses is established if there is evidence that we will be unable to collect all amounts due according to the original contractual terms of the Net Investment in Finance Leases. At December 31, 2014, we had no allowance for credit losses for our Net investment in finance leases.
Derivative Financial Instruments
In the normal course of business we utilize derivative instruments to manage our exposure to interest rate risks. All interest rate derivatives are recognized on the balance sheet at their fair value. We determine fair value for our United States dollar-denominated interest rate derivatives by calculating reset rates and discounting cash flows based on cash rates, futures rates and swap rates in effect at the period close. The changes in fair values related to the effective portion of the interest rate derivatives are recorded in other comprehensive income on our consolidated balance sheet. The ineffective portion of the interest rate derivative is calculated and recorded in interest expense on our consolidated statement of income at each quarter end. For any interest rate derivatives not designated as a hedge, all mark-to-market adjustments are recognized in other income (expense) on our consolidated statement of income.
At inception of the hedge, we choose a method to assess effectiveness and to calculate ineffectiveness, which we must use for the life of the hedge relationship. We have three hedges which are designated using the hypothetical derivative method for assessment of effectiveness and calculation of ineffectiveness. The hypothetical derivative method involves a comparison of the change in the fair value of an actual interest rate derivative to the change in the fair value of a hypothetical interest rate derivative with critical terms that reflect the hedged debt. When the change in the value of the interest rate derivative exceeds the change in the hypothetical interest rate derivative, the calculated ineffectiveness is recorded in interest
expense on our consolidated statement of income. The effectiveness of these relationships is tested by regressing historical changes in the interest rate derivative against historical changes in the hypothetical interest rate derivative.
Fair Value Measurements
We measure the fair value of interest rate derivative assets and liabilities on a recurring basis. Fair value is the amount that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. Our valuation model for interest rate derivatives classified in Level 2 maximizes the use of observable inputs, including contractual terms, interest rate curves, cash rates and futures rates and minimizes the use of unobservable inputs, including an assessment of the risk of non-performance by the interest rate derivative counterparty in valuing derivative assets, an evaluation of the Company’s credit risk in valuing derivative liabilities and an assessment of market risk in valuing the derivative asset or liability. We use our interest rate derivative counterparty’s valuation of our interest rate derivatives to validate our models. Our interest rate derivatives are sensitive to market changes in LIBOR as discussed in Item 7A.
ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Interest rate risk is the exposure to loss resulting from changes in the level of interest rates and the spread between different interest rates. These risks are highly sensitive to many factors, including U.S. monetary and tax policies, U.S. and international economic factors and other factors beyond our control. We are exposed to changes in the level of interest rates and to changes in the relationship or spread between interest rates. Our primary interest rate exposures relate to our lease agreements, floating rate debt obligations and interest rate derivatives. Rent payments under our aircraft lease agreements typically do not vary during the term of the lease according to changes in interest rates. However, our borrowing agreements generally require payments based on a variable interest rate index, such as LIBOR. Therefore, to the extent our borrowing costs are not fixed, increases in interest rates may reduce our net income by increasing the cost of our debt without any corresponding increase in rents or cash flow from our securities.
Changes in interest rates may also impact our net book value as our interest rate derivatives are periodically marked-to-market through shareholders’ equity. Generally, we are exposed to loss on our fixed pay interest rate derivatives to the extent interest rates decrease below their contractual fixed rate.
The relationship between spreads on derivative instruments may vary from time to time, resulting in a net aggregate book value increase or decrease. Changes in the general level of interest rates can also affect our ability to acquire new investments and our ability to realize gains from the settlement of such assets.
Sensitivity Analysis
The following discussion about the potential effects of changes in interest rates is based on a sensitivity analysis, which models the effects of hypothetical interest rate shifts on our financial condition and results of operations. Although we believe a sensitivity analysis provides the most meaningful analysis permitted by the rules and regulations of the SEC, it is constrained by several factors, including the necessity to conduct the analysis based on a single point in time and by the inability to include the extraordinarily complex market reactions that normally would arise from the market shifts modeled. Although the following results of a sensitivity analysis for changes in interest rates may have some limited use as a benchmark, they should not be viewed as a forecast. This forward-looking disclosure also is selective in nature and addresses only the potential interest expense impacts on our financial instruments and, in particular, does not address the mark-to-market impact on our interest rate derivatives. It also does not include a variety of other potential factors that could affect our business as a result of changes in interest rates.
A hypothetical 100-basis point increase/decrease in our variable interest rates would increase/decrease the minimum contracted rentals on our portfolio as of December 31, 2014 by $3.8 million and $1.8 million, respectively, over the next twelve months. As of December 31, 2014, a hypothetical 100-basis point increase/decrease in our variable interest rate on our borrowings would result in an interest expense increase/decrease of $3.6 million and $1.7 million, respectively, net of amounts received from our interest rate derivatives, over the next twelve months.
ITEM 8.
ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Our consolidated financial statements and notes thereto, referred to in Item 15(A)(1) of this Form 10-K, are filed as part of this report and appear in this Form 10-K beginning on page.
ITEM 9.
ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS ON ACCOUNTING AND FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE
None.
ITEM 9A.
ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES.
Management’s Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
The term “disclosure controls and procedures” is defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”). This term refers to the controls and procedures of a company that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by a company in the reports that it files under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified by the SEC and that such information is accumulated and communicated to the Company’s management, including its Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. An evaluation was performed under the supervision and with the participation of the Company’s management, including the CEO and CFO, of the effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures as of December 31, 2014. Based on that evaluation, the Company’s management, including the CEO and CFO, concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of December 31, 2014.
Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
The Company’s management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as such term is defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(f). The Company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or because the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our CEO and CFO, we conducted an assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2014. The assessment was based on criteria established in the framework Internal Control - Integrated Framework, issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations ("COSO") of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) (the COSO criteria). Based on this assessment, management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2014.
Ernst & Young LLP, the independent registered public accounting firm that audited our Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, audited the effectiveness of our controls over financial reporting as of December 31, 2014. Ernst & Young LLP has issued its report which is included below.
Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the quarter ended December 31, 2014 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
The Board of Directors and Shareholders of
Aircastle Limited
We have audited Aircastle Limited and subsidiaries’ internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2014, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) (the COSO criteria). Aircastle Limited and subsidiaries’ management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting included in Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
In our opinion, Aircastle Limited and subsidiaries maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2014, based on the COSO criteria.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the consolidated balance sheets of Aircastle Limited and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2013 and 2014, and the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, changes in shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2014 of Aircastle Limited and subsidiaries and our report dated February 19, 2015 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
/s/ Ernst & Young LLP
Stamford, Connecticut
February 19, 2015
ITEM 9B.
ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
None.
PART III
ITEM 10.
ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
The name, age and background of each of our directors nominated for election will be contained under the caption “Election of Directors” in our Proxy Statement for our 2015 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. The identification of our Audit Committee and our Audit Committee financial experts will be contained in our Proxy Statement for our 2015 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders under the captions “CORPORATE GOVERNANCE - Committees of the Board of Directors - The Audit Committee.” Information regarding our Code of Business Ethics and Conduct, any material amendments thereto and any related waivers will be contained in our Proxy Statement for our 2015 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders under the captions “CORPORATE GOVERNANCE - Code of Business Conduct and Ethics.” All of the foregoing information is incorporated herein by reference. The Code of Business Conduct and Ethics is posted on Aircastle’s Website at www.aircastle.com under Investors - Corporate Governance. Pursuant to Item 401(b) of Regulation S-K, the requisite information pertaining to our executive officers is reported immediately following Item 4 of Part I of this report.
Information on compliance with Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act will be contained in our Proxy Statement for our 2015 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders under the captions “OWNERSHIP OF AYR COMMON SHARES - Section 16(a) Beneficial Ownership Reporting Compliance” and is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 11.
ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
Information on compensation of our directors and certain named executive officers will be contained in our Proxy Statement for our 2015 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders under the captions “Directors’ Compensation” and “EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION,” respectively, and is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 12.
ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS AND MANAGEMENT AND RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS
Information on the number of shares of Aircastle’s common shares beneficially owned by each director, each named executive officer and by all directors and executive officers as a group will be contained under the captions “OWNERSHIP OF THE COMPANY’S COMMON SHARES - Security Ownership by Management” and information on each beneficial owner of more than 5% of Aircastle’s common shares is contained under the captions “OWNERSHIP OF THE COMPANY’S COMMON SHARES - Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners” in our Proxy Statement for our 2015 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders and is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 13.
ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS, AND DIRECTOR INDEPENDENCE
Information relating to certain transactions between Aircastle and its affiliates and certain other persons will be set forth under the caption “CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS” in our Proxy Statement for our 2015 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders and is incorporated herein by reference.
Information relating to director independence will be set forth under the caption “PROPOSAL NUMBER ONE - ELECTION OF DIRECTORS - Director Independence” in our Proxy Statement for our 2015 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders and is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 14.
ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES
Information relating to audit fees, audit-related fees, tax fees and all other fees billed in fiscal 2014 and by Ernst & Young LLP, for services rendered to Aircastle is set forth under the caption “INDEPENDENT AUDITOR FEES” in the Proxy Statement for our 2015 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders and is incorporated herein by reference. In addition, information relating to the pre-approval policies and procedures of the Audit Committee is set forth under the caption “INDEPENDENT AUDITOR FEES - Pre-Approval Policies and Procedures” in our Proxy Statement for our 2014 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders and is incorporated herein by reference.
PART IV
ITEM 15.
ITEM 15. EXHIBITS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
(B) EXHIBIT INDEX
E - 1
E - 2
E - 3
E - 4
_____________
# Management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement.
* Filed herewith.
Ø Portions of this exhibit have been omitted pursuant to a request for confidential treatment.
E - 5
F - 1
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
The Board of Directors and Shareholders of
Aircastle Limited
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Aircastle Limited and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2013 and 2014, and the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, changes in shareholders’ equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2014. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the consolidated financial position of Aircastle Limited and subsidiaries at December 31, 2013 and 2014 and the consolidated results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2014, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), Aircastle Limited and subsidiaries’ internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2014, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) and our report dated February 19, 2015 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
/s/ Ernst & Young LLP
Stamford, Connecticut
February 19, 2015
F - 2
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Consolidated Balance Sheets
(Dollars in thousands, except share data)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
F - 3
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Consolidated Statements of Income
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
F - 4
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income
(Dollars in thousands)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
F - 5
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
(Dollars in thousands)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
F - 6
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Consolidated Statements of Changes in Shareholders’ Equity
(Dollars in thousands, except share amounts)
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
F - 7
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
Note 1. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies
Organization and Basis of Presentation
Aircastle Limited (“Aircastle,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” or “our”) is a Bermuda exempted company that was incorporated on October 29, 2004 under the provisions of Section 14 of the Companies Act of 1981 of Bermuda. Aircastle’s business is investing in aviation assets, including acquiring, leasing, managing and selling high-utility commercial jet aircraft. From time to time, we also make investments in other aviation assets, including debt investments secured by commercial jet aircraft.
Aircastle is a holding company that conducts its business through subsidiaries. Aircastle directly or indirectly owns all of the outstanding common shares of its subsidiaries. The consolidated financial statements presented are prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“US GAAP”). We operate in one segment.
The Company’s management has reviewed and evaluated all events or transactions for potential recognition and/or disclosure since the balance sheet date of December 31, 2014 through the date on which the consolidated financial statements included in this Form 10-K were issued.
Effective June 1, 2014, the Company adopted the Financial Accounting Standards Board (the “FASB”) Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2014-08 (“ASU 2014-08”), Presentation of Financial Statements (Topic 205) and Property, Plant, and Equipment (Topic 360), Reporting Discontinued Operations and Disclosures of Disposals of Components of an Entity, which changes the criteria for determining which disposals can be presented as discontinued operations and modifies related disclosure requirements. This ASU raises the threshold for disposals to qualify as discontinued operations by focusing on strategic shifts that have or will have a major effect on an entity’s operations and financial results. This ASU also allows companies to have significant continuing involvement and continuing cash flows with the disposed component and requires additional disclosures for discontinued operations and new disclosures for individually material disposal transactions that do not meet the definition of a discontinued operation. ASU 2014-08 applies prospectively to new disposals and new classifications of disposal groups as held for sale after the effective date and should be applied prospectively. Early adoption of the guidance is permitted for new disposals (or new classifications as held for sale) that have not been reported in financial statements previously issued or available for issuance. The adoption of ASU 2014-08 did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.
Principles of Consolidation
The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Aircastle and all of its subsidiaries. Aircastle consolidates seven Variable Interest Entities (“VIEs”) of which Aircastle is the primary beneficiary. All intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated in consolidation.
We consolidate VIEs in which we have determined that we are the primary beneficiary. We use judgment when deciding (a) whether an entity is subject to consolidation as a VIE, (b) who the variable interest holders are, (c) the potential expected losses and residual returns of the variable interest holders, and (d) which variable interest holder is the primary beneficiary. When determining which enterprise is the primary beneficiary, we consider (1) the entity’s purpose and design, (2) which variable interest holder has the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the entity’s economic performance, and (3) the obligation to absorb losses of the entity or the right to receive benefits from the entity that could potentially be significant to the VIE. When certain events occur, we reconsider whether we are the primary beneficiary of VIEs. We do not reconsider whether we are a primary beneficiary solely because of operating losses incurred by an entity.
Risk and Uncertainties
In the normal course of business, Aircastle encounters several significant types of economic risk including credit, market, aviation industry and capital market risks. Credit risk is the risk of a lessee’s inability or unwillingness to make contractually required payments and to fulfill its other contractual obligations. Market risk reflects the change in the value of derivatives and financings due to changes in interest rate spreads or other market factors, including the value of collateral underlying derivatives and financings. Aviation industry risk is the risk of a downturn in the commercial aviation industry which could adversely impact a lessee’s ability to make payments, increase the risk of unscheduled lease terminations and
F - 8
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
depress lease rates and the value of the Company’s aircraft. Capital market risk is the risk that the Company is unable to obtain capital at reasonable rates to fund the growth of our business or to refinance existing debt facilities.
Use of Estimates
The preparation of financial statements in conformity with US GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. While Aircastle believes that the estimates and related assumptions used in the preparation of the consolidated financial statements are appropriate, actual results could differ from those estimates.
Cash and Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash and Cash Equivalents
Aircastle considers all highly liquid investments with maturities of three months or less when purchased to be cash equivalents.
Restricted cash and cash equivalents consists primarily of rent collections, maintenance payments and security deposits received from lessees pursuant to the terms of various lease agreements held in lockbox accounts in accordance with our financings. Changes in restricted cash and cash equivalents related to rent collections are reflected within operating activities of our consolidated statements of cash flows for non-cash trapped financings. Changes in restricted cash and cash equivalents related to rent collections are reflected within financing activities of our consolidated statements of cash flows for cash trapped financings. Changes in restricted cash related to the sale of flight equipment are reflected within investing activities of our consolidated statements of cash flows. Changes in restricted cash and cash equivalents related to maintenance payments and security deposits are reflected within financing activities of our consolidated statements of cash flows.
Virtually all of our cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash and cash equivalents are held by seven major financial institutions.
Flight Equipment Held for Lease and Depreciation
Flight equipment held for lease is stated at cost and depreciated using the straight-line method, typically over a 25-year life from the date of manufacture for passenger aircraft and over a 30- to 35-year life for freighter aircraft, depending on whether the aircraft is a converted or purpose-built freighter, to estimated residual values. Estimated residual values are generally determined to be approximately 15% of the manufacturer’s estimated realized price for passenger aircraft when new and 5% - 10% for freighter aircraft when new. Management may make exceptions to this policy on a case-by-case basis when, in its judgment, the residual value calculated pursuant to this policy does not appear to reflect current expectations of value. Examples of situations where exceptions may arise include but are not limited to:
•
flight equipment where estimates of the manufacturer’s realized sales prices are not relevant (e.g., freighter conversions);
•
flight equipment where estimates of the manufacturers’ realized sales prices are not readily available; and
•
flight equipment which may have a shorter useful life due to obsolescence.
Major improvements and modifications incurred in connection with the acquisition of aircraft that are required to get the aircraft ready for initial service are capitalized and depreciated over the remaining life of the flight equipment.
For planned major maintenance activities for aircraft off-lease, the Company capitalizes the actual maintenance costs by applying the deferral method. Under the deferral method, we capitalize the actual cost of major maintenance events, which are depreciated on a straight-line basis over the period until the next maintenance event is required.
In accounting for flight equipment held for lease, we make estimates about the expected useful lives, the fair value of attached leases, acquired maintenance liabilities and the estimated residual values. In making these estimates, we rely upon actual industry experience with the same or similar aircraft types and our anticipated lessee’s utilization of the aircraft.
When we acquire an aircraft with a lease, determining the fair value of attached leases requires us to make assumptions regarding the current fair values of leases for specific aircraft. We estimate a range of current lease rates of like aircraft in order to determine if the attached lease is within a fair value range. If a lease is below or above the range of current lease
F - 9
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
rates, we present value the estimated amount below or above the fair value range over the remaining term of the lease. The resulting lease discount or premium is amortized into lease rental income over the remaining term of the lease.
Impairment of Flight Equipment
We perform a recoverability assessment of all aircraft in our fleet, on an aircraft-by-aircraft basis annually during the third quarter. In addition, a recoverability assessment is performed whenever events or changes in circumstances, or indicators, suggest that the carrying amount or net book value of an asset may not be recoverable. Indicators may include, but are not limited to, a significant lease restructuring or early lease termination, significant change in aircraft model's storage levels, the introduction of newer technology aircraft or engines, an aircraft type is no longer in production or a significant airworthiness directive is issued. When we perform a recoverability assessment, we measure whether the estimated future undiscounted net cash flows expected to be generated by the aircraft exceed its net book value. The undiscounted cash flows consist of cash flows from currently contracted lease rental and maintenance payments, future projected lease rates, transition costs, estimated down time, estimated residual or scrap values for an aircraft, economic conditions and other factors. In the event that an aircraft does not meet the recoverability test, the aircraft will be adjusted to fair value, resulting in an impairment charge. See Note 2. - Fair Value Measurements.
Management develops the assumptions used in the recoverability analysis based on current and future expectations of the global demand for a particular aircraft type and historical experience in the aircraft leasing market and aviation industry, as well as information received from third party industry sources. The factors considered in estimating the undiscounted cash flows are impacted by changes in future periods due to changes in projected lease rental and maintenance payments, residual values, economic conditions, technology, airline demand for a particular aircraft type and other factors.
In monitoring the aircraft in our fleet for impairment charges, we identify those aircraft that are most susceptible to failing the recoverability assessment and monitor those aircraft more closely, which may result in more frequent recoverability assessments. The recoverability in the value of these aircraft is more sensitive to changes in contractual cash flows, future cash flow estimates and residual values or scrap values for each aircraft. These are typically older aircraft for which lessee demand is declining.
Net Investment in Finance Leases
If a lease meets specific criteria at the inception of a new lease or at any lease modification date, we recognize the lease as a Net investment in finance leases on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. The Net investment in finance leases consists of lease receivables, less the unearned income, plus the estimated unguaranteed residual value of the leased flight equipment at the lease end date. The unearned income is recognized as Finance lease revenue in our Consolidated Statements of Income over the lease term in a manner that produces a constant rate of return on the Net investment in finance lease.
Collectability of finance leases is evaluated periodically on an individual customer level. The evaluation of the collectability of the finance leases considers the credit of the lessee and the value of the underlying aircraft. An allowance for credit losses is established if there is evidence that we will be unable to collect all amounts due according to the original contractual terms of the Net investment in finance leases. At December 31, 2014, we had no allowance for credit losses for our Net investment in finance leases.
Unconsolidated Equity Method Investment
Aircastle accounts for its interest in an unconsolidated joint venture using the equity method as we do not control the joint venture entity. Under the equity method, the investment is initially recorded at cost and the carrying amount is affected by its share of the unconsolidated joint venture's undistributed earnings and losses, and distributions of dividends and capital.
Capitalization of Interest
We capitalize interest related to progress payments made in respect of flight equipment on forward order and on prepayments made in respect of the conversion of passenger-configured aircraft to freighter-configured aircraft, and add such amount to prepayments on flight equipment. The amount of interest capitalized is the actual interest costs incurred on funding specific assets or the amount of interest costs which could have been avoided in the absence of such payments for the related assets.
F - 10
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
Security Deposits
Most of our operating leases require the lessee to pay Aircastle a security deposit or provide a letter of credit. Security deposits represent cash received from the lessee that is held on deposit until lease expiration. Aircastle’s operating leases also obligate the lessees to maintain flight equipment and comply with all governmental requirements applicable to the flight equipment, including without limitation, operational, maintenance, registration requirements and airworthiness directives.
Maintenance Payments
Typically, under an operating lease, the lessee is responsible for performing all maintenance but might be required to make payments to us for heavy maintenance, overhaul or replacement of certain high-value components of the aircraft. These maintenance payments are based on hours or cycles of utilization or on calendar time, depending upon the component, and are required to be made monthly in arrears or at the end of the lease term. Whether to permit a lessee to make maintenance payments at the end of the lease term, rather than requiring such payments to be made monthly, depends on a variety of factors, including the creditworthiness of the lessee, the level of security deposit which may be provided by the lessee and market conditions at the time we enter into the lease. If a lease requires monthly maintenance payments, we would typically be obligated to reimburse the lessee for costs they incur for heavy maintenance, overhaul or replacement of certain high-value components to the extent of maintenance payments received in respect of the specific maintenance event, usually shortly following completion of the relevant work. If a lease requires end of lease term maintenance payments, typically the lessee would be required to pay us for its utilization of the aircraft during the lease; however, in some cases, we may owe a net payment to the lessee in the event heavy maintenance is performed and paid for by the lessee during the lease term and the aircraft is returned to us in better condition that at lease inception.
We record monthly maintenance payments by the lessee as accrued maintenance payments liabilities in recognition of our contractual commitment to refund such receipts. In these contracts, we do not recognize such maintenance payments as maintenance revenue during the lease. Reimbursements to the lessee upon the receipt of evidence of qualifying maintenance work are charged against the existing accrued maintenance payments liability. We currently defer maintenance revenue recognition of all monthly maintenance payments collected until the end of the lease, when we are able to determine the amount, if any, by which the monthly maintenance payments received from a lessee exceed costs to be incurred by that lessee in performing heavy maintenance. End of lease term maintenance payments made to us are recognized as maintenance revenue, and end of lease term maintenance payments we make to a lessee are recorded as contra maintenance revenue.
Lease Incentives and Amortization
Many of our leases contain provisions which may require us to pay a portion of the lessee’s costs for heavy maintenance, overhaul or replacement of certain high-value components. We account for these expected payments as lease incentives, which are amortized as a reduction of revenue over the life of the lease. We estimate the amount of our portion for such costs, typically for the first major maintenance event for the airframe, engines, landing gear and auxiliary power units, expected to be paid to the lessee based on assumed utilization of the related aircraft by the lessee, the anticipated amount of the maintenance event cost and the estimated amounts the lessee is responsible to pay.
This estimated lease incentive is not recognized as a lease incentive liability at the inception of the lease. We recognize the lease incentive as a reduction of lease revenue on a straight-line basis over the life of the lease, with the offset being recorded as a lease incentive liability which is included in maintenance payments on the balance sheet. The payment to the lessee for the lease incentive liability is first recorded against the lease incentive liability, and any excess above the lease incentive liability is recorded as a prepaid lease incentive asset, which is included in other assets on the balance sheet and continues to amortize over the remaining life of the lease.
Lease acquisition costs related to reconfiguration of the aircraft cabin, other lessee specific modifications and other direct costs are capitalized and amortized into revenue over the initial life of the lease, assuming no lease renewals, and are included in other assets.
Income Taxes
Aircastle uses an asset and liability based approach in accounting for income taxes. Deferred income tax assets and liabilities are recognized for the future tax consequences attributed to differences between the financial statement and tax basis of existing assets and liabilities using enacted rates applicable to the periods in which the differences are expected to
F - 11
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
affect taxable income. A valuation allowance is established, when necessary, to reduce deferred tax assets to the amount estimated by us to be realizable. The Company recognizes the tax benefit from an uncertain tax position only if it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities. We did not have any unrecognized tax benefits.
Derivative Financial Instruments
In the normal course of business we utilize interest rate derivatives to manage our exposure to interest rate risks. Specifically, our interest rate derivatives are hedging variable rate interest payments on our various debt facilities. If certain conditions are met, an interest rate derivative may be specifically designated as a cash flow hedge. All of our designated interest rate derivatives are cash flow hedges. We have one interest rate derivative that is not designated for accounting purposes.
On the date that we enter into an interest rate derivative, we formally document the intended use of the interest rate derivative and its designation as a cash flow hedge, if applicable. We also assess (both at inception and on an ongoing basis) whether the interest rate derivative has been highly effective in offsetting changes in the cash flows of the variable rate interest payments on our debt and whether the interest rate derivative is expected to remain highly effective in future periods. If it were to be determined that the interest rate derivative is not (or has ceased to be) highly effective as a cash flow hedge, we would discontinue cash flow hedge accounting prospectively.
At inception of an interest rate derivative designated as a cash flow hedge, we establish the method we will use to assess effectiveness and the method we will use to measure any ineffectiveness. We have three hedges which are designated using the “hypothetical derivative method” for assessment of effectiveness and calculation of ineffectiveness. The hypothetical derivative method involves a comparison of the change in the fair value of the interest rate derivative to the change in the fair value of a hypothetical interest rate derivative with critical terms that reflect the hedged variable-rate debt. The effectiveness of these relationships is assessed by regressing historical changes in the interest rate derivative against historical changes in the hypothetical interest rate derivative. When the change in the interest rate derivative exceeds the change in the hypothetical interest rate derivative, the calculated ineffectiveness is recorded in interest expense on our consolidated statement of income.
All interest rate derivatives are recognized on the balance sheet at their fair value. We determine fair value for our United States dollar-denominated interest rate derivatives by calculating reset rates and discounting cash flows based on cash rates, futures rates and swap rates in effect at the period close. See Note 2 - Fair Value Measurements for more information.
For our interest rate derivatives designated as cash flow hedges, the effective portion of the interest rate derivative’s gain or loss is initially reported as a component of other comprehensive income and subsequently reclassified into earnings when the interest payments on the debt are recorded in earnings. The ineffective portion of the interest rate derivative is calculated and recorded in interest expense on our consolidated statement of income at each quarter end. For any interest rate derivative not designated as a cash flow hedge, the gain or loss is recognized in other income (expense) - other on our consolidated statement of income.
We may choose to terminate certain interest rate derivatives prior to their contracted maturities. Any related net gains or losses in accumulated other comprehensive income at the date of termination are not reclassified into earnings if it remains probable that the interest payments on the debt will occur. The amounts in accumulated other comprehensive income are reclassified into earnings as the interest payments on the debt affect earnings. Terminated interest rate derivatives are reviewed periodically to determine if the forecasted transactions remain probable of occurring. To the extent that the occurrence of the interest payments on the debt are deemed remote, the related portion of the accumulated other comprehensive income balance is reclassified into earnings immediately.
Lease Revenue Recognition
We lease flight equipment under net operating leases with lease terms typically ranging from three to seven years. We generally do not offer renewal terms or purchase options in our leases, although certain of our operating leases allow the lessee the option to extend the lease for an additional term. Operating leases with fixed rentals and step rentals are recognized on a straight-line basis over the term of the initial lease, assuming no renewals. Operating lease rentals that adjust based on
F - 12
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
a London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) index are recognized on a straight-line basis over the period the rentals are fixed and accruable. Revenue is not recognized when collection is not reasonably assured. When collectability is not reasonably assured, the customer is placed on non-accrual status, and revenue is recognized when cash payments are received.
Comprehensive Income
Comprehensive income consists of net income and other gains and losses, net of income taxes, if any, affecting shareholders’ equity that, under US GAAP, are excluded from net income. At December 31, 2013 and 2014, such amount consists of the effective portion of fluctuations in the fair value of derivatives designated as cash flow hedges.
Share Based Compensation
Aircastle recognizes compensation cost relating to share-based payment transactions in the financial statements based on the fair value of the equity instruments issued. Aircastle uses the straight line method of accounting for compensation cost on share-based payment awards that contain pro-rata vesting provisions.
Deferred Financing Costs
Deferred financing costs, which are included in other assets in the Consolidated Balance Sheet, are amortized using the interest method for amortizing loans over the lives of the relevant related debt.
Leasehold Improvements, Furnishings and Equipment
Improvements made in connection with the leasing of office facilities are capitalized as leasehold improvements and are amortized on a straight line basis over the minimum lease period. Furnishings and equipment are capitalized at cost and are amortized over the estimated life of the related assets or remaining lease terms, which range between three and five years.
Proposed Accounting Pronouncements
In May 2013, the FASB issued re-exposure draft, “Leases” (the “Lease Re-ED”), which would replace the existing guidance in the Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 840 (“ASC 840”), Leases. In March 2014, the FASB decided that the accounting for leases by lessors would basically remain unchanged from the concepts existing in current ASC 840 accounting. In addition, the FASB decided that a lessor should be precluded from recognizing selling profit and revenue at lease commencement for any sales-type or direct finance lease that does not transfer control of the underlying asset to the lessee. This requirement aligns the notion of what constitutes a sale in the lessor accounting guidance with that in the forthcoming revenue recognition standard, which evaluates whether a sale has occurred from the customer’s perspective. We anticipate that the final standard may have an effective date no earlier than 2017. We believe that when and if the proposed guidance becomes effective, it will not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.
On May 28, 2014, the FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board (the “IASB”) (collectively, the Boards), jointly issued ASU No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606). Lease contracts within the scope of ASC 840, Leases, are specifically excluded from ASU No. 2014-09. The standard’s core principle is that a company will recognize revenue when it transfers promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which a company expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The standard is effective for public entities beginning after December 15, 2016. The standard allows for either “full retrospective” adoption, meaning the standard is applied to all of the periods presented, or “modified retrospective” adoption, meaning the standard is applied only to the most current period presented in the financial statements. The Company is currently evaluating its existing revenue recognition policies to determine the affect this new guidance will have on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.
On August 27, 2014, the FASB issued ASU No. 2014-15, Presentation of Financial Statements - Going Concern (Subtopic 205-40). The standard requires management of public companies to evaluate whether there is substantial doubt about the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern and, if so, disclose that fact. Management should evaluate whether there are conditions or events, considered in the aggregate, that raises substantial doubt about the entity’s ability to continue as a going concern within one year after the date that the financial statements are issued (or available to be issued, when applicable). The standard is effective for annual periods ending after December 15, 2016 and interim periods thereafter, and early adoption is permitted. The adoption of this standard is not expected to have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.
F - 13
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
Note 2. Fair Value Measurements
Fair value measurements and disclosures require the use of valuation techniques to measure fair value that maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize use of unobservable inputs. These inputs are prioritized as follows:
•
Level 1: Observable inputs such as quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.
•
Level 2: Inputs other than quoted prices included within Level 1 that are observable, either directly or indirectly, such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities or market corroborated inputs.
•
Level 3: Unobservable inputs for which there is little or no market data and which require us to develop our own assumptions about how market participants price the asset or liability.
The valuation techniques that may be used to measure fair value are as follows:
•
The market approach uses prices and other relevant information generated by market transactions involving identical or comparable assets or liabilities.
•
The income approach uses valuation techniques to convert future amounts to a single present amount based on current market expectation about those future amounts.
•
The cost approach is based on the amount that currently would be required to replace the service capacity of an asset (replacement cost).
The following tables set forth our financial assets and liabilities as of December 31, 2013 and 2014 that we measured at fair value on a recurring basis by level within the fair value hierarchy. Assets and liabilities measured at fair value are classified in their entirety based on the lowest level of input that is significant to their fair value measurement.
Our cash and cash equivalents, along with our restricted cash and cash equivalents balances, consist largely of money market securities that are considered to be highly liquid and easily tradable. These securities are valued using inputs observable in active markets for identical securities and are therefore classified as Level 1 within our fair value hierarchy. Our interest rate derivatives included in Level 2 consist of United States dollar-denominated interest rate derivatives, and their fair values
F - 14
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
are determined by applying standard modeling techniques under the income approach to relevant market interest rates (cash rates, futures rates, swap rates) in effect at the period close to determine appropriate reset and discount rates and incorporates an assessment of the risk of non-performance by the interest rate derivative counterparty in valuing derivative assets and an evaluation of the Company’s credit risk in valuing derivative liabilities.
The following table reflects the activity for the classes of our assets and liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3) for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2014:
For the year ended December 31, 2013, we had no transfers into or out of Level 3; however in 2013, we settled the debt investment during the first quarter of 2013. For the year ended December 31, 2014, we had no transfers into or out of Level 3.
We measure the fair value of certain assets and liabilities on a non-recurring basis, when US GAAP requires the application of fair value, including events or changes in circumstances that indicate that the carrying amounts of assets may not be recoverable. Assets subject to these measurements include our investment in an unconsolidated joint venture and aircraft. We account for our investment in an unconsolidated joint venture under the equity method of accounting and record impairment when its fair value is less than its carrying value. We record aircraft at fair value when we determine the carrying value may not be recoverable. Fair value measurements for aircraft in impairment tests are based on an income approach which uses Level 3 inputs, which include the Company’s assumptions and appraisal data as to future cash proceeds from leasing and selling aircraft.
Aircraft Valuation
Annual Fleet-Wide Impairments
We perform our annual fleet-wide recoverability assessment during the third quarter of each year. This recoverability assessment is a comparison of the carrying value of each aircraft to its undiscounted expected future cash flows. We develop the assumptions used in the recoverability assessment, including those relating to current and future demand for each aircraft type, based on management's experience in the aircraft leasing industry as well as information received from third party sources. Estimates of the undiscounted cash flows for each aircraft type are impacted by changes in contracted and future expected lease rates, residual values, expected scrap values, economic conditions and other factors.
In the 2014 assessment, we reduced our forecast of future cash flows for certain freighter aircraft to reflect the cumulative effect of increasing supply of such aircraft over the past three years, relative to a modest increase in demand observed in 2014.
More specifically, we determined the cash flows expected to be generated by two of our McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighter aircraft did not support their carrying values. As a result, we impaired these two aircraft during the third quarter of 2014, which had an aggregate net book value as of June 30, 2014 of $53,777, writing down their book values by a total of $19,515. We also shortened their expected lives from 25 to 21 years and reduced their residual values.
F - 15
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
In addition, for our five Boeing 747-400 production freighters, all of which passed the annual recoverability assessment in 2014, we shortened the expected lives from 35 years to 30 years from the date of manufacture.
For changes we made to our aircraft mentioned above and other adjustments to lives and/or residual values, we estimate an increase in depreciation expense for the year ended December 31, 2015 of approximately $7,757.
Other than the aircraft discussed above, management believes that the net book value of each aircraft is currently supported by the estimated future undiscounted cash flows expected to be generated by that aircraft, and accordingly, no other aircraft were impaired as a consequence of this recoverability assessment. However, if our expectations warrant, we may change our cash flow assumptions and require future impairment charges. While we believe that the estimates and related assumptions used in the recoverability assessment are appropriate, actual results could differ from those estimates.
Other Impairments
In addition to impairment from our fleet wide review, during 2014 we recorded impairment charges of $42,681 on six passenger and one freighter aircraft that were returned to us early as a result of lease terminations or amendments which we refer to as “Transactional Impairments”. We recorded maintenance revenue of $42,490 and other revenue of $515 and reversed lease incentives of $456 related to these aircraft.
We also recorded impairment charges of $30,877 during 2014 related to two 747-400 converted freighter aircraft which we refer to as “Freighters Held for Sale”, and recorded maintenance revenue of $9,137 and other revenue of $183 and reversed lease incentives of $3,626 related to these aircraft. One of these converted freighters was sold in January 2015 and the other is under a consignment contract and is in the process of being parted out.
A summary of Other Impairments for the year ended December 31, 2014 follows:
Following our recoverability assessment during the third quarter of 2013, we impaired six Boeing 747-400 converted freighter aircraft and one Boeing 737-700 aircraft and recorded impairment charges of $88,647 and $8,945, respectively.
In addition, during 2013 we recorded impairment charges of $19,713 on five passenger aircraft that were returned to us early as a result of lease terminations or amendments. We recorded maintenance revenue of $28,178 and other revenue of $1,784 related to these aircraft.
Financial Instruments
Our financial instruments, other than cash, consist principally of cash equivalents, restricted cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, accounts payable, amounts borrowed under financings and interest rate derivatives. The fair value of cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable and accounts payable approximates the carrying value of these financial instruments because of their short-term nature.
The fair values of our securitization which contain third party credit enhancements are estimated using a discounted cash flow analysis, based on our current incremental borrowing rates of borrowing arrangements that do not contain third party credit enhancements. The fair values of our credit facilities, ECA term financings and bank financings are estimated
F - 16
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
using a discounted cash flow analysis, based on our current incremental borrowing rates for similar types of borrowing arrangements. The fair value of our Senior Notes is estimated using quoted market prices.
The carrying amounts and fair values of our financial instruments at December 31, 2013 and 2014 are as follows:
All of our financial instruments are classified as Level 2 with the exception of our senior Notes, which are classified as Level 1.
Note 3. Lease Rental Revenues and Flight Equipment Held for Lease
Minimum future annual lease rentals contracted to be received under our existing operating leases of flight equipment at December 31, 2014 were as follows:
Geographic concentration of lease rental revenue earned from flight equipment held for lease was as follows:
The classification of regions in the tables above and the table and discussion below is determined based on the principal location of the lessee of each aircraft.
For the year ended December 31, 2012, one customer accounted for 9% of lease rental revenues, and four additional customers accounted for a combined 25% of lease rental revenues. No other customer accounted for more than 5% of lease rental revenues.
F - 17
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
For the year ended December 31, 2013, one customer accounted for 8% of lease rental revenues, and three additional customers accounted for a combined 17% of lease rental revenues. No other customer accounted for more than 5% of lease rental revenues.
For the year ended December 31, 2014, one customer accounted for 6% of lease rental revenues, and two additional customers accounted for a combined 11% of lease rental revenues. No other customer accounted for more than 5% of lease rental revenues.
The following table sets forth revenue attributable to individual countries representing at least 10% of total revenue (including maintenance revenue) in any year based on each lessee’s principal place of business for the years indicated:
______________
(1)
Total revenue attributable to Russia was less than 10% for the twelve months ended December 31, 2012 and 2013. For the twelve months ended December 31, 2014, includes $29,867 of maintenance revenue related to early lease terminations.
(2)
Total revenue attributable to the United States was less than 10% for the twelve months ended December 31, 2014.
(3)
Total revenue attributable to China was less than 10% for the twelve months ended December 31, 2013 and 2014.
Geographic concentration of net book value of flight equipment held for lease was as follows:
______________
(1)
Consists of two Boeing 747-400 converted freighter aircraft, one of which was subject to a commitment to lease and was delivered to our customer in the first quarter of 2014 and the other is in the process of being parted-out.
(2)
Consists of one Airbus A320-200 aircraft which was subject to a commitment to lease and was delivered to our customer in February 2015.
At December 31, 2013 and 2014, no country represented at least 10% of net book value of flight equipment based on each lessee's principal place of business.
At December 31, 2013 and 2014, the amounts of lease incentive liabilities recorded in maintenance payments on the consolidated balance sheets were $28,611 and 22,833, respectively.
F - 18
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
Note 4. Net Investment in Finance Leases
At December 31, 2014, our net investment in finance leases represents six aircraft leased to three customers in the United States, one aircraft leased to a customer in Canada and one aircraft leased to a customer in Croatia. The following table lists the components of our net investment in finance leases at December 31, 2014:
At December 31, 2014, minimum future lease payments on finance leases are as follows:
Note 5. Unconsolidated Equity Method Investment
On December 19, 2013, the Company and an affiliate of Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan ("Teachers' ") formed a joint venture (the "JV"), in which we have a 30% equity interest, to invest in leased aircraft. Teachers' holds more than 9.7% of our outstanding common shares. Accordingly, the formation of the JV and the sale of two A330 aircraft by us to the JV in December 2013 were submitted to, and approved by, our Audit Committee as arm's length related party transactions under our related party policy. During the last half of 2014, we sold two Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and one Embraer E195 aircraft, all of which we had acquired during 2014, to the JV; these transactions were also approved by our Audit Committee as arm's length related party transactions under our related party agreement. The assets and liabilities of this joint venture are off our balance sheet and we record our net investment under the equity method of accounting.
We will source and service these investments and will provide marketing, asset management and administrative services to the joint venture and will be paid market-based fees for those services. The Company is not obligated to source investments for the joint venture or to offer any minimum number of investments to the joint venture, and neither partner is obliged to invest in a specific transaction. While the Company has no obligation to make additional investments in the JV, we have agreed to return to the JV any portion of distributions from the JV which comprise lessee maintenance payments and security deposits, to the extent that the JV must reimburse such maintenance payments or security deposits to the lessee. The Company has recorded a $3,576 guarantee liability which is reflected in Maintenance payments on the balance sheet and a $5,100 guarantee liability which is reflected in Security deposits on the balance sheet.
F - 19
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
Note 6. Variable Interest Entities
Aircastle consolidates seven VIEs of which it is the primary beneficiary. The operating activities of these VIEs are limited to acquiring, owning, leasing, maintaining, operating and, under certain circumstances, selling the 14 aircraft discussed below.
Securitizations
In connection with Securitization No. 1, two of our subsidiaries, ACS Aircraft Finance Ireland plc (“ACS Ireland”) and ACS Aircraft Finance Bermuda Limited (“ACS Bermuda”) issued Class A-1 notes, and each has fully and unconditionally guaranteed the other's obligations under the notes. In connection with Securitization No. 2, two of our subsidiaries, ACS Aircraft Finance Ireland 2 Limited (“ACS Ireland 2”) and ACS 2007-1 Limited (“ACS Bermuda 2”) issued Class A-1 notes and each has fully and unconditionally guaranteed the other's obligations under the notes. ACS Ireland and ACS Ireland 2 are collectively referred to as the “ACS Ireland VIEs.” In February 2014, we repaid the outstanding amount plus accrued interest and fees due under Securitization No. 1 and ACS Ireland became a wholly owned subsidiary of Aircastle.
Aircastle is the primary beneficiary of ACS Ireland 2, as we have both the power to direct the activities of the VIE that most significantly impact the economic performance of such VIE and we bear the significant risk of loss and participate in gains through Class E-1 Securities. Although Aircastle has not guaranteed the ACS Ireland 2 debt, Aircastle wholly owns the ACS Bermuda 2 which has fully and unconditionally guaranteed the ACS Ireland 2 VIE obligations. The activity that most significantly impacts the economic performance is the leasing of aircraft. Aircastle Advisor (Ireland) Limited (Aircastle's wholly owned subsidiary) is the remarketing servicer and is responsible for the leasing of the aircraft. An Irish charitable trust owns 95% of the common shares of ACS Ireland 2. The Irish charitable trust's risk is limited to its annual dividend of $2. At December 31, 2014, the assets of ACS Ireland 2 include six aircraft transferred into the VIEs at historical cost basis in connection with Securitization No. 2.
The assets of ACS Ireland 2 as of December 31, 2014 are $171,112. The liabilities of ACS Ireland 2, net of $40,351 Class E-1 Securities held by the Company, which is eliminated in consolidation, as of December 31, 2014 are $129,441.
ECA Term Financings
Aircastle, through various subsidiaries, each of which is owned by a charitable trust (such entities, collectively the “Air Knight VIEs”), has entered into eight different twelve-year term loans, which are supported by guarantees from Compagnie Francaise d’ Assurance pour le Commerce Exterieur, (“COFACE”), the French government sponsored export credit agency (“ECA”). We refer to these COFACE-supported financings as “ECA Term Financings.”
Aircastle is the primary beneficiary of the Air Knight VIEs, as we have the power to direct the activities of the VIEs that most significantly impact the economic performance of such VIEs and we bear the significant risk of loss and participate in gains through a finance lease. The activity that most significantly impacts the economic performance is the leasing of aircraft of which our wholly owned subsidiary is the servicer and is responsible for managing the relevant aircraft. There is a cross collateralization guarantee between the Air Knight VIEs. In addition, Aircastle guarantees the debt of the Air Knight VIEs.
The only assets that the Air Knight VIEs have on their books are financing leases that are eliminated in the consolidated financial statements and deferred financing costs. The related aircraft, with a net book value as of December 31, 2014 were
F - 20
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
$644,132, are included in our flight equipment held for lease. The consolidated debt outstanding of the Air Knight VIEs as of December 31, 2014 is $449,886.
Note 7. Borrowings from Secured and Unsecured Debt Financings
The outstanding amounts of our secured and unsecured term debt financings were as follows:
_______________
(1)
Reflects the floating rate in effect at the applicable reset date plus the margin for Securitization No. 2, three of our Bank Financings and our Revolving Credit Facility. All other financings have a fixed rate.
(2)
For Securitization No. 2, all cash flows available after expenses and interest are applied to debt amortization.
(3)
In February 2014, we repaid the outstanding amount plus accrued interest and fees due under Securitization No. 1 and terminated the related interest rate derivative, for a total cash payment of $255,186, with proceeds from our December 2013 issuance of our Senior Note due 2018.
(4)
Proceeds from the issuance of our Senior Notes due 2021 were used to pay-off the balance of our 9.75% Senior Notes due 2018 plus accrued interest of $10,238 and the call premium of $32,835 on April 25, 2015.
The following securitizations structures include liquidity facility commitments described in the table below:
The purpose of these facilities is to provide liquidity for the relevant securitization or term financing in the event that cash flow from lease contracts and other revenue sources is not sufficient to pay operating expenses with respect to the relevant aircraft portfolio, interest payments and interest rate hedging payments for the relevant securitization.
F - 21
Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
Secured Debt Financings:
Securitizations
In February 2014, we repaid the outstanding amount plus accrued interest and fees due under Securitization No. 1 and terminated the related interest rate derivative, for a total cash payment of $255,186 with proceeds from our December 2013 issuance of our Senior Notes due 2018.
ECA Term Financings
We refer to these COFACE-supported financings as “ECA Term Financings”. The borrowings under these financings at December 31, 2014 have a weighted average rate of interest equal to 3.568%.
The obligations outstanding under the ECA Term Financings are secured by, among other things, a mortgage over the aircraft and a pledge of our ownership interest in our subsidiary company that leases the aircraft to the operator. The ECA Term Financings documents contain a $500,000 minimum net worth covenant for Aircastle Limited, as well as a material adverse change default and cross default to any other recourse obligation of Aircastle Limited, and other terms and conditions customary for ECA-supported financings being completed at this time. In addition, Aircastle Limited has guaranteed the repayment of the ECA Term Financings.
Bank Financings
In February 2014, we entered into two floating rate loans and one fixed rate loan totaling $303,200 secured by two Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and one Airbus A330-200 aircraft we acquired in 2013.
In March 2014, we assumed two floating rate loans totaling $40,809 in connection with the acquisition of two Boeing 737-800 aircraft. During the third quarter of 2014, we converted one of the floating rate loans relating to the Boeing 737-800 aircraft to a fixed rate of 2.27% for the remaining debt term.
We refer to these loan facilities as “Bank Financings”. Our Bank Financings contain, among other customary provisions, a $500,000 minimum net worth covenant and, in some cases, a cross-default to other financings with the same lender. In addition, Aircastle Limited has guaranteed the repayment of the Bank Financings. The borrowings under these financings at December 31, 2014 have a weighted average fixed rate of interest equal to 3.437%.
Unsecured Debt Financings:
Senior Notes due 2021
On March 26, 2014, Aircastle Limited issued $500,000 aggregate principal amount of Senior Notes due 2021 (the "2021 Senior Notes"). The 2021 Senior Notes will mature on March 15, 2021 and bear interest at the rate of 5.125% per annum, payable semi-annually on March 15 and September 15 of each year, commencing on September 15, 2014. Interest will accrue on the 2021 Senior Notes from March 26, 2014.
The company may redeem the Senior Notes due 2021 at any time at a redemption price equal to (a) 100% of the principal amount of the notes redeemed, plus accrued and unpaid interest thereon to, but not including, the redemption date and (b) the sum of the present values of the remaining scheduled payments of principal and interest on the notes from the redemption date through the maturity date of the notes (computed using a discount rate equal to the Treasury Rate as of such redemption date plus 50 basis points), plus accrued and unpaid interest to, but not including, the redemption date. In addition, on or before March 17, 2017, we may redeem up to 35% of the aggregate principal amount of the notes issued under the indenture at a redemption price equal to 105.125% plus accrued and unpaid interest thereon, with the net proceeds of certain equity offerings. If the Company undergoes a change of control, it must offer to repurchase the Senior Notes due 2021 at 101% of the principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest. The Senior Notes due 2021 are not guaranteed by any of the Company's subsidiaries or any third party.
Proceeds from the issuance were used to pay-off the outstanding amount of our 9.75% Senior Notes due 2018 plus accrued interest of $10,238, and the call premium of $32,835 on April 25, 2014. We also wrote off $3,735 of debt issuance costs associated with the pay-off of the Senior Notes due 2018. Both the call premium and the write-off of debt issuance costs were included in Other income (expense) - Loss on extinguishment of debt on our consolidated statement of income.
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Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
Senior Notes due 2022
On January 15, 2015, Aircastle Limited issued $500,000 aggregate principal amount of Senior Notes due 2022 (the "2022 Senior Notes"). The 2022 Senior Notes will mature on February 15, 2022 and bear interest at the rate of 5.50% per annum, payable semi-annually on February 15 and August 15 of each year, commencing on August 15, 2015. Interest will accrue on the 2022 Senior Notes from January 15, 2015.
The company may redeem the Senior Notes due 2022 at any time at a redemption price equal to (a) 100% of the principal amount of the notes redeemed, plus accrued and unpaid interest thereon to, but not including, the redemption date and (b) the sum of the present values of the remaining scheduled payments of principal and interest on the notes from the redemption date through the maturity date of the notes (computed using a discount rate equal to the Treasury Rate as of such redemption date plus 50 basis points), plus accrued and unpaid interest to, but not including, the redemption date. In addition, on or before February 15, 2018, we may redeem up to 35% of the aggregate principal amount of the notes issued under the indenture at a redemption price equal to 105.50% plus accrued and unpaid interest thereon, with the net proceeds of certain equity offerings. If the Company undergoes a change of control, it must offer to repurchase the Senior Notes due 2021 at 101% of the principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest. The Senior Notes due 2021 are not guaranteed by any of the Company's subsidiaries or any third party.
Proceeds from the issuance were used to pay-off our Revolving Credit Facility and for general corporate purposes.
Revolving Credit Facility
On March 31, 2014, we amended and restructured our existing $335,000 Revolving Credit Facility. The Revolving Credit Facility was increased to $450,000, has a term of four years and is scheduled to expire in March 2018. At December 31, 2014, we had drawn down $200,000 on the facility.
On January 26, 2015, we increased the size of our Revolving Credit Facility from $450,000 to $600,000.
Maturities of the secured and unsecured debt financings over the next five years and thereafter are as follows:
______________
(1) Included in the above table are forecasted principal payments for Securitization No. 2. These forecasted payments are based on excess cash flows available from forecasted lease rentals, net maintenance funding (which is forecasted to be neutral after the first 12 months) and proceeds from asset dispositions after the payment of forecasted operating expenses and interest payments.
As of December 31, 2014, we are in compliance with all applicable covenants in our financings.
Note 8. Shareholders’ Equity and Share Based Payment
In January 2006, the board of directors (the “Board”) and shareholders managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group LLC (the "Fortress Shareholders") adopted the Aircastle Investment Limited 2005 Equity and Incentive Plan, and the Board and the Fortress Shareholders approved an amendment to and restatement thereof on July 20, 2006 (as so amended and restated, the “2005 Plan”).
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Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
On March 14, 2014 (the “effective date”), the Board of Directors adopted the Aircastle Limited 2014 Omnibus Incentive Plan (the “2014 Plan”). The “2014 Plan” was approved by shareholders at the Company’s 2014 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on May 22, 2014. The 2014 Plan replaced the 2005 Plan.
The purposes of the 2014 Plan are to provide an additional incentive to selected officers, employees, non-employee directors, independent contractors, and consultants of the Company or its affiliates whose contributions are essential to the growth and success of the business of the Company and its affiliates, to strengthen the commitment of such persons to the Company and its affiliates, motivate such persons to faithfully and diligently perform their responsibilities and attract and retain competent and dedicated persons whose efforts will result in the long-term growth and profitability of the Company and its affiliates. To accomplish such purposes, the 2014 Plan provides that the Company may grant options, share appreciation rights, restricted shares, restricted share units, share bonuses, other share-based awards, cash awards or any combination of the foregoing. The 2014 Plan provides that grantees of restricted common shares will have all of the rights of shareholders, including the right to receive dividends, other than the right to sell, transfer, assign or otherwise dispose of the shares until the lapse of the restricted period. Generally, the restricted common shares vest over three or five year periods based on continued service and are being expensed on a straight line basis over the requisite service period of the awards. The terms of the grants provide for accelerated vesting under certain circumstances, including termination without cause following a change of control.
The maximum number of Common Shares reserved for issuance under the 2014 Plan is 2,500,000 Common Shares, which includes 713,540 Common Shares remaining under the 2005 Plan which became available for reuse following the adoption of the 2014 Plan. Awards outstanding under the 2005 Plan in the amount of 572,977 will continue to vest subject to the terms and conditions of the 2005 Plan and the applicable awards agreements which are included in the below table.
A summary of the fair value of non-vested shares for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2013 and 2014 is as follows:
The fair value of the restricted common shares granted in 2012, 2013 and 2014 were determined based upon the market price of the shares at the grant date.
The total unrecognized compensation cost, adjusted for estimated forfeitures, related to all non-vested shares as of December 31, 2014, in the amount of $6,035, is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 2.53 years.
On October 31, 2014, our Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of $100,000 of the Company's common shares.
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Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
On February 18, 2015, the Company, Marubeni and a subsidiary of Marubeni entered into an amendment and restatement of the Shareholder Agreement, which (1) modified the terms of the Shareholder Agreement to immediately permit acquisitions by Marubeni and its affiliates of voting securities of the Company in the secondary market pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 plan that would result in Marubeni and its affiliates collectively holding more than 21.0% but no more than 27.5% of the voting power of the Company and (2) extended the term of the standstill provision of the Shareholder Agreement by 18 months to January 2025.
Note 9. Dividends
The following table sets forth the quarterly dividends declared by our Board of Directors for the three years ended December 31, 2014:
Note 10. Earnings Per Share
We include all common shares granted under our incentive compensation plan which remain unvested (“restricted common shares”) and contain non-forfeitable rights to dividends or dividend equivalents, whether paid or unpaid (“participating securities”), in the number of shares outstanding in our basic and diluted EPS calculations using the two-class method. All of our restricted common shares are currently participating securities.
Under the two-class method, earnings per common share are computed by dividing the sum of distributed earnings allocated to common shareholders and undistributed earnings allocated to common shareholders by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding for the period. In applying the two-class method, distributed and undistributed earnings are allocated to both common shares and restricted common shares based on the total weighted average shares outstanding during the period as follows:
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Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
The calculations of both basic and diluted earnings per share for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2013 and 2014 are as follows:
_____________
(a)
For the years ended December 31, 2012, 2013 and 2014, distributed and undistributed earnings to restricted shares is 0.82%, 0.80% and 0.73%, respectively, of net income. The amount of restricted share forfeitures for all periods present is immaterial to the allocation of distributed and undistributed earnings.
(b)
For the years ended December 31, 2012, 2013 and 2014, we have no dilutive shares.
Note 11. Income Taxes
Income taxes have been provided for based upon the tax laws and rates in countries in which our operations are conducted and income is earned. The Company received an assurance from the Bermuda Minister of Finance that it would be exempted from local income, withholding and capital gains taxes until March 2035. Consequently, the provision for
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Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
income taxes recorded relates to income earned by certain subsidiaries of the Company which are located in, or earn income in, jurisdictions that impose income taxes, primarily the United States and Ireland.
The sources of income from continuing operations before income taxes and earnings of unconsolidated equity method investment for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2013 and 2014 were as follows:
The components of the income tax provision from continuing operations for the year ended December 31, 2012,
2013 and 2014 consisted of the following:
Significant components of the Company’s deferred tax assets and liabilities at December 31, 2012, 2013 and 2014 consisted of the following:
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Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
The Company had approximately $17,820 of net operating loss (“NOL”) carry forwards available at December 31, 2014 to offset future taxable income subject to U.S. graduated tax rates. If not utilized, these carry forwards expire between 2029 through 2034. The Company also had NOL carry forwards of $502,454 with no expiration date to offset future Irish, Mauritius and Singapore taxable income. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are included in other assets and accounts payable and accrued liabilities, respectively, in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets.
We do not expect to incur income taxes on future distributions of undistributed earnings of non-U.S. subsidiaries and, accordingly, no deferred income taxes have been provided for the distributions of such earnings. As of December 31, 2014 we have elected to permanently reinvest our accumulated undistributed U.S. earnings of $11,082. Accordingly, no U.S. withholding taxes have been provided. Withholding tax of $3,325 would be due if such earnings were remitted.
All of our aircraft-owning subsidiaries that are recognized as corporations for U.S. tax purposes are non-U.S. corporations. These non-U.S. subsidiaries generally earn income from sources outside the United States and typically are not subject to U.S. federal, state or local income taxes unless they operate within the U.S., in which case they may be subject to federal, state and local income taxes. The aircraft owning subsidiaries resident in Ireland, Mauritius and Singapore are subject to tax in those respective jurisdictions.
We have a U.S-based subsidiary which provides management services to our non-U.S. subsidiaries and is subject to U.S. federal, state and local income taxes. We also have Ireland and Singapore based subsidiaries which provide management services to our non-U.S. subsidiaries and are subject to tax in those respective jurisdictions.
Differences between statutory income tax rates and our effective income tax rates applied to pre-tax income from continuing operations at December 31, 2012, 2013 and 2014 consisted of the following:
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Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
The Company recognizes the tax benefit from an uncertain tax position only if it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities. We did not have any unrecognized tax benefits.
We conduct business globally and, as a result, the Company and its subsidiaries or branches are subject to foreign, U.S. federal and various state and local income taxes, as well as withholding taxes. In the normal course of business the Company is subject to examination by taxing authorities throughout the world, including such major jurisdictions as Ireland and the United States. With few exceptions, the Company and its subsidiaries or branches remain subject to examination for all periods since inception.
Our policy is that we will recognize interest and penalties accrued on any unrecognized tax benefits as a component of income tax expense. We did not accrue interest or penalties associated with any unrecognized tax benefits, nor was any interest expense or penalty recognized during the year.
Note 12. Interest, Net
The following table shows the components of interest, net for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2013 and 2014:
Note 13. Commitments and Contingencies
Rent expense, primarily for the corporate office and sales and marketing facilities, was approximately $955, $1,236 and $1,150 for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2013 and 2014, respectively.
As of December 31, 2014, Aircastle is obligated under non-cancelable operating leases relating principally to office facilities in Stamford, Connecticut; Dublin, Ireland; and Singapore for future minimum lease payments as follows:
At December 31, 2014, we had commitments to acquire 16 aircraft in 2015 for $686,040, including four 777-300ER aircraft which were part of our previously announced purchase/lease-back transaction with LATAM. Our commitment to acquire the LATAM 777 aircraft expired in January 2015, as the airline was unable to economically unwind its existing
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Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
financings for these aircraft. As of February 6, 2015, after taking into account two aircraft acquisitions for $119,000 thus far in 2015, we now have commitments to acquire 11 aircraft for $298,800 that we expect to complete by June 30, 2015.
Note 14. Derivatives
The objective of our hedging policy is to adopt a risk averse position with respect to changes in interest rates. Accordingly, we have entered into a number of interest rate derivatives to hedge the current and expected future interest rate payments on our variable rate debt. Interest rate derivatives are agreements in which a series of interest rate cash flows are exchanged with a third party over a prescribed period. The notional amount on an interest rate derivative is not exchanged. Our interest rate derivatives typically provide that we make fixed rate payments and receive floating rate payments to convert our floating rate borrowings to fixed rate obligations to better match the largely fixed rate cash flows from our investments in flight equipment.
We held the following interest rate derivatives as of December 31, 2014:
One of the interest rate derivatives hedging Securitization No. 2. was de-designated on November 30, 2014. The effective portion of the loss of $1,719 remained in other comprehensive loss on our consolidated balance sheet and will amortize into interest expense using the effective interest method. The change in fair value as of November 30, 2014 will be recorded in other income (expense) on our consolidated statement of income.
For the year ended December 31, 2014, the amount of effective deferred loss reclassified from OCI into interest expense related to our undesignated active interest rate derivative is $90. The amount of effective deferred loss expected to be reclassified from OCI into interest expense over the next twelve months related to our undesignated active interest rate derivative is $900.
For the year ended December 31, 2014, the amount of effective deferred loss reclassified from OCI into interest expense related to our designated active interest rate derivative was $548.
The weighted average interest pay rates of these derivatives at December 31, 2012, 2013 and 2014 were 2.91%, 3.03% and 1.27%, respectively.
For the year ended December 31, 2014, the amount of loss reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive income (“OCI”) into interest expense related to net interest settlements on active interest rate derivatives was $6,262. The amount
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Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
of loss expected to be reclassified from OCI into interest expense over the next 12 months related to net interest settlements on active interest rate derivatives is $2,960.
Our interest rate derivatives involve counterparty credit risk. As of December 31, 2014, our interest rate derivatives are held with the following counterparties: JP Morgan Chase Bank NA and Wells Fargo Bank NA. Both of our counterparties or guarantors of these counterparties are considered investment grade (senior unsecured ratings of Aa3 or above) by Moody’s Investors Service. Both are also considered investment grade (long-term foreign issuer ratings of AA- or above) by Standard and Poor’s. We do not anticipate that any of these counterparties will fail to meet their obligations.
In addition to the derivative liability above, another component of the fair value of our interest rate derivatives is accrued interest. As of December 31, 2014, accrued interest payable included in accounts payable, accrued expenses, and other liabilities on our consolidated balance sheet was $149 related to interest rate derivatives designated as cash flow hedges and $121 related to interest rate derivatives not designated as cash flow hedges.
Following is the effect of interest rate derivatives on the statement of financial performance for the year ended December 31, 2014:
______________
(a)
This represents the change in fair market value of our interest rate derivatives since year end, net of taxes, offset by the amount of actual cash paid related to the net settlements of the interest rate derivatives for each of the twelve months ended December 31, 2014.
(b)
This represents the amount of actual cash paid, net of taxes, related to the net settlements of the interest rate derivatives for each of the twelve months ended December 31, 2014 plus any effective amortization of net deferred interest rate derivative losses.
(c)
This represents both realized and unrealized ineffectiveness incurred during the twelve months ended December 31, 2014.
On an ongoing basis, terminated interest rate derivative notionals are evaluated against debt forecasts. To the extent that interest payments are deemed remote to occur, deferred gains or losses are accelerated into interest expense as applicable.
In connection with the repayment of Securitization No. 1., two interest rate derivatives hedging the facility were terminated on February 18, 2014, resulting in a net deferred loss of $26,863 which is being amortized into interest expense using the effective interest method over the original hedge term.
For the year ended December 31, 2014, the amount of deferred net loss (including $78 of accelerated amortization driven by aircraft sales in 2014) reclassified from OCI into interest expense related to our terminated interest rate derivatives was $34,341. The amount of deferred net loss expected to be reclassified from OCI into interest expense over the next 12 months related to our terminated interest rate derivatives is $23,414, of which $5,567 relates to Term Financing No. 1 interest rate derivatives, $10,940 relates to Securitization No. 1 interest rate derivatives, $5,657 relates to ECA Term Financings for New A330 Aircraft, and $1,250 relates to other financings.
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Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
The following table summarizes amounts charged directly to the consolidated statement of income for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2013, and 2014 related to our interest rate derivative contracts:
_____________
(1)
For the year ended December 31, 2013, includes accelerated amortization of deferred hedge losses related to two aircraft sold in June 2013. For the year ended December 31, 2014, includes accelerated amortization of deferred hedge gains related to the sale of aircraft.
Note 15. Other Assets
The following table describes the principal components of other assets on our consolidated balance sheet as of:
Note 16. Accounts Payable, Accrued Expenses and Other Liabilities
The following table describes the principal components of accounts payable, accrued expenses and other liabilities recorded on our consolidated balance sheet as of:
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Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
Note 17. Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss
The following table describes the principal components of accumulated other comprehensive loss recorded on our consolidated balance sheet as of:
(a) All amounts are net of tax. Amounts in parentheses indicate debits.
(a) All amounts are net of tax.
(b) Included in interest expense.
(c) This represents the effective amounts of actual cash paid related to the net settlements of the interest rate derivatives plus any effective amortization of net deferred interest rate derivative losses (see Note 14. - Derivatives).
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Aircastle Limited and Subsidiaries
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
(Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)
Note 18. Quarterly Financial Data (Unaudited)
Quarterly results of our operations for the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2014 are summarized below:
The sum of the quarterly earnings per share amounts may not equal the annual amount reported since per share amounts are computed independently for each period presented.
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SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Aircastle Limited has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
Dated: February 19, 2015
Aircastle Limited
By:
/s/ Ron Wainshal
Ron Wainshal
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of Aircastle Limited and in the capacities and on the date indicated.
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