International law firm Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised Crédit Agricole CIB (“CA-CIB”) as mandated lead arranger, facility agent and security trustee and the Korea Development Bank as arranger, on the commercial financing for Minsheng Financial Leasing of four Airbus A320-200s (MSNs 5744, 5807, 5893 and 5898) currently on lease to India carrier IndiGo.
Minsheng Financial Leasing is a subsidiary of China Minsheng Bank. Founded in 1996 and publicly listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2009, China Minsheng Bank was the first bank in China to be owned primarily by non-government enterprises.
IndiGo is India’s largest airline by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 39.8% market share as of January 2017, as well as the eighth largest carrier in Asia overall with over 41 million passengers carried in 2016.
The WFW team advising CA-CIB was led by Singapore aviation finance Partner Samuel Kolehmainen, assisted by Associates Charlotte Bown and Rachel Tan. WFW Paris Office Head and Finance Partner Laurence Martinez-Bellet advised on the French law aspects of the transaction and New York Counsel Susanne Burstein on US matters.
