Aircraft leasing firm’s 13 directors share €8m

The pay pot for a group of high-flying aircraft leasing executives last year soared to $9.9m (€7.8m).

New figures show that the 13 directors that served on the board of AWAS Aviation Capital Ltd last year received on average over $760,000 each.

The take home pay for the majority of the board members is higher as three of the executives served only part of the year, or 17 months among them.

The jump in pay by 15%, going from $8.6m to $9.9m for the directors, comes in spite of pre-tax profits more than halving from $185.44m to $86m in the 12 months to the end of November 30 last.

Revenues last year increased by 8%, from $996m to $1.07bn made up of $1.046bn in lease income and $28.34m on ‘other income’.

AWAS — which is one of the largest aircraft leasing firms in the world — has its global headquarters in Dublin and is led by president and chief executive, Raymond Sisson.

AWAS has a portfolio of over 300 aircraft and during last year it completed 88 new leasing transactions with 54 customers, along with purchasing 45 aircraft and selling 20.

The chief factor behind the sharp drop in profits was asset impairment increasing more than three fold from $62.27m to $191.3m. The profit also takes account of high non-cash depreciation costs of $379m.

The pay for directors is made up of $3.76m in share-based payments and $6m in other emoluments.

Pay throughout the firm is very generous with the 135 staff receiving aggregate pay including benefit expenses totalling $53m.

Last year, AWAS, which is owned by Terra Firma Capital Partners, closed $1.92bn of financing for aircraft and forward orders for the year.

The directors expect the general level of activity to continue and will continue to evaluate new opportunities.

They state that during the year “there was strong revenue growth, offset by increased depreciation and higher loss on transfer to finance lease”.

The principal activity of the firm — which has offices in New York, Singapore and Miami — is the provision of management and administration services to affiliated companies.

The firm’s total equity was $2.9bn, including $304m in cash.

The company’s general expenses include $5.5m in travel expenses; $4.6m in office expenses and $7.2m in legal and professional fees.

Nine of the world’s top ten aircraft leasing firms are based in Ireland where they employ 1,000 people directly and 2,000 indirectly.