AirFinance and Apple Bank Named EXIM 2021 Lenders of the Year
September 22, 2021
(Ex-Im Bank)
Aircraft Financing Arranger and Lender
Recognized for Successful Collaboration Meeting
Liquidity Challenges of COVID-19 Pandemic
WASHINGTON – The Export-Import Bank of the
United States (EXIM) today gave the Lender of
the Year award to AirFinance Leasing LLC in
Virginia and to Apple Bank for Savings in
New York, New York, in recognition of their
successful collaboration in finding a creative
financing solution that provided liquidity to
an aircraft manufacturer in Florida in the face
of the challenges caused by the COVID-19
pandemic. The awards were presented today
during EXIM’s 2021 Annual Conference being
held virtually September 21-23.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the
commercial financing market temporarily was
very limited. AirFinance sought prospects for
participation in EXIM programs and found a
candidate for a creative solution with Embraer
Aircraft (EEA) in Melbourne, Florida. EEA’s
business model is to deliver business jets to
foreign buyers that are required to pay a
deposit of 20 to 30 percent upfront and then
pay the remaining balance upon delivery of the
aircraft. Due to pandemic travel restrictions,
foreign buyers were not able to travel to the
United States to take delivery of their
aircraft—which meant that the cash invested
by EEA in those aircraft would be tied up
indefinitely.
AirFinance, an EXIM Qualified Advisor, informed
EXIM’s Business Credit Division of the
situation and proposed a unique inventory-only
facility through which EEA would be allowed to
borrow against the aircraft waiting to be
picked up by foreign buyers as collateral for
the loan. The facility is unique because most
EXIM working capital guarantees are provided on
facilities where the accounts receivable is the
primary collateral. This inventory-only
facility enabled EEA to borrow the funds they
needed from Apple Bank for Savings to continue
operations and enabled EEA to maintain all of
its U.S. jobs.
“As the facility for Embraer Executive
Aircraft demonstrates, EXIM benefits from
creative lending partners such as AirFinance
and Apple Bank for Savings because they seek
out gaps in the market and partner with us to
provide the export financing that our exporters
need to maintain and grow their export sales
and sustain and add American jobs,” said EXIM
Business Credit Division Vice President Steven
Freshour, who presented the awards.
“AirFinance’s long-term relationship and
trust with EXIM was essential to partnering
with EXIM’s Working Capital Division to
customize and tailor a program that had long
been used in EXIM, especially in designing the
approval so it would work for how a U.S.
aircraft manufacturer sells and delivers its
products. The EXIM team was diligent,
constructive, creative, and responsive, and
every decision they made had the mission of
creating and protecting U.S. jobs at the
forefront,” said AirFinance Managing Partner
Kirsten Bartok Touw.
“The EXIM 2021 Deal of the Year Award is a
milestone in the longstanding relationship we
have had with EXIM, since 2009 to finance the
export of wide-body, single-aisle, regional and
business jet aircraft. We are grateful to be
recognized with this award, and we look forward
to continuing our deep and productive
partnership with EXIM,” said Steven C. Bush,
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
of Apple Bank.
Dana R. MacKinnon, Senior Vice President and
Head of Export Credit, stated, “We are
extremely honored to receive this award and to
support Embraer’s manufacturing facility and
hundreds of American aircraft manufacturing
jobs. Apple Bank, through its longstanding
relationship with AirFinance will continue to
remain the ‘go-to’ bank for EXIM-backed
working capital facility financings.”
Apple Bank for Savings has partnered with EXIM
for more than a decade. The lender has financed
the export of U.S.-manufactured wide-body and
narrow-body commercial aircraft and corporate
business jet aircrafts to a range of airlines,
aircraft leasing companies, regional airlines,
and aircraft operators around the world. As a
result, the partnership between Apple Bank for
Savings and EXIM has expanded the global reach
of the agency’s customer base and provided a
solid earnings foundation for the bank’s
substantial export credit business.
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