Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank (“CA-CIB”) and The Korea Development Bank (“KDB”) on a first-of-its-kind Balthazar insurance-backed, sustainability-linked JOLCO financing of one Airbus A350-900 aircraft on lease to Air France. The transaction is supported by a Balthazar aircraft non-payment insurance policy provided by a group of highly rated insurers and arranged by insurance broker Marsh. The equity was provided by Mitsubishi HC Capital.
The facility was multicurrency US dollar and Japanese yen – the first Air France JOLCO to be structured as such – comprising an optional Japanese yen tranche for Air France to draw down on in addition to the “primary” US dollar facility. The sustainability-linked margin adjustment targets/KPIs in the loan tie in with Air France’s sustainability commitment and goals as set out in the Air France-KLM annual report.
CA-CIB is the corporate and investment banking arm of the Crédit Agricole Group and supports corporate clients and financial institutions through tailor-made financing solutions covering all international markets.
KDB is a wholly state-owned South Korean development bank. Since its establishment, KDB has been providing financing for the development and promotion of industries, the expansion of social infrastructure development of countries, the stabilisation of financial markets and the facilitation of sustainable growth.
The WFW Singapore Aviation team that advised CA-CIB and KDB was led by Partner Charles Viggers, supported by Senior Associate Margaux Ith and Associate Shauna Yong. WFW Paris acted as French and CCR counsel.
Charles commented: “We’re delighted to have assisted CA-CIB and KDB on this ground-breaking, first of its kind transaction that plays to WFW’s unrivalled expertise on both sustainability-linked and JOLCO financings in the firm’s core transport sector”.
