The International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) was an aircraft lessor headquartered in the

Constellation Place Constellation Place is a 35- story, skyscraper in Los Angeles, California, located in the community of Century City. It houses the headquarters of Houlihan Lokey, ICM Partners, Knight Law Group, and International Lease Finance Corporation (I ...

Century City, Los Angeles Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles, California, United States. Located on the Westside to the south of Santa Monica Boulevard around 10 miles (16 km) west of downtown Los Angeles, Centu ...

, California, US. It was the world's largest aircraft lessor by value, though ILFC's rival, General Electric's GECAS unit, had more aircraft. It leased

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

and

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

aircraft to major airlines worldwide.

History

Father and son team Leslie Gonda and Louis L. Gonda founded ILFC in 1973 along with Steven F. Udvar-Házy. The company was acquired by international insurance giant

American International Group American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. As of 2023, AIG employed 25,200 people. The company operates through three core ...

(AIG) in 1990, although the unit was still run by Udvar-Hazy until he retired in February 2010, when he was succeeded by vice-chairman Alan Lund. Henri Courpron, a former Airbus executive, was appointed president and CEO of ILFC in May 2010. On September 2, 2011, AIG filed with the SEC to spin off ILFC in an initial public offering. In December 2012, AIG announced that it was selling a 90% stake in the company to a consortium of Chinese companies consisting of New China Trust,

New China Life Insurance New China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. also known as New China Insurance (NCI) or Xinhua Baoxian Jituan () is a Chinese life insurance company based in Beijing. The Chinese government owns more than half of the shares of the company via sovereign fu ...

, P3 Investments and the China Aviation Industrial Fund to raise funds to repay its

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

182B government bailout. In August 2013, two of the Chinese companies withdrew their involvement in the deal. AIG had given a deadline for the completion of the deal as August 31, 2013, and alternatives were considered, such as an initial public offering. On December 16, 2013, AIG announced they were selling its entire stake in ILFC to AerCap Holdings N.V.

Headquarters

The ILFC was headquartered in Suite 3400 of the

(formerly

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

Tower) in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. ILFC has its headquarters on the top six floors of the building, with 290 employees as of March 2013. The CEO's penthouse office had a working fireplace.

References

External links

Official website
{{American International Group Aircraft leasing companies Companies based in Los Angeles Financial services companies of the United States 2014 mergers and acquisitions