Aircraft investment fund closes £42m placing to fund further A350 acquisition

Investors are still looking to the non-bank lending market for income.

Aircraft Leasing investment trust Amedeo Air Four Plus has raised £42m though new share issuance as it looks to expand its fleet.

The closed ended-fund specialises in leasing Airbus A380s – the world’s largest passenger plane - among other larger aircraft to airlines, a role traditionally facilitated by big banks.

It aims to provide shareholders with an attractive total return comprising income from distributions and capital upon the sale, re-lease.

The new issue of 40.35m shares at 104p have begun trading on the London Stock Exchange in a placing that was “significantly oversubscribed”, according to regulatory filings. Amedeo Capital has also sold 14.075m shares via the placing, reducing its holding to 1.0m shares.

Amedeo Air Four Plus currently owns eight Airbus A380-800, two Boeing 777-300ER and three Airbus A350-900s aircraft, leased for 12 year terms from the acquisition dates. The proceeds will be used, according to analysts at Numis Securities, to acquire a further Airbus A350-900s aircraft to be leased to an airline for a 12-year term.

Eight of these aircraft are leased to Emirates, two aircraft are leased to Etihad and three aircraft are leased to Thai Airways.

“Following the share issue the company’s market cap will increase to £668m. It pays a quarterly dividend of 8.25p pa, equivalent to a yield of 7.9% on the issue price.,” Numis said.