Garuda leases six Airbus A-33Os after 7-year delay<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned airline company Garuda Indonesia
\nhas finally signed a deal for the leasing of six Airbus A-330-300
\naircraft, which were initially ordered from the European
\nconsortium Airbus Industrie about seven years ago.<\/p>\n
The aircraft are the first six of a batch of nine A-330-300s
\nordered by Garuda, which has chosen Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, a
\nGerman leasing company, as the arranger of the lease.<\/p>\n
Garuda said in a statement over the weekend that the deal was
\nsigned in Singapore on Saturday by top executives of Garuda,
\nAirbus and Morgan Grenfell.<\/p>\n
No information about the value of the deal was available.<\/p>\n
Last April Garuda invited several international financing
\nfirms to facilitate the leasing operation of the aircraft, after
\nrevising all of its purchasing contracts into leasing schemes for
\nfinancial reasons.<\/p>\n
In addition to the A-330-300 procurement plan, the company
\nlast year announced it would buy just seven Boeing B-737-400 jets
\neven though it had agreed to buy 16, and also settled to buy only
\ntwo B-747-400s after sealing contracts to purchase nine.<\/p>\n
A number of prominent firms took part in the six A-330-300 bid
\nwhich saw Morgan Grenfell, Chase Manhattan and HSBC of Hong Kong
\nas bidding participants.<\/p>\n
Morgan Grenfell was named as the winner twice as the
\ngovernment performed a \"modified\" tender. A planned signing of
\nthe deal with Morgan Grenfell was canceled shortly before a
\nsealing schedule, due to widely-sent reports revealing that
\nGrenfell had offered a US$660-million proposal, which was not the
\ncheapest bid.<\/p>\n
Analysts said at that time that Garuda, still suffering from
\nlong-term financial problems, would be in a disadvantaged
\nposition because the second bid should not have been performed as
\nthe widely-sent reports were not valid. In the meantime, the
\ndelayed bidding process forced Garuda to pay an expensive penalty
\nto Airbus.<\/p>\n
Delivery<\/p>\n
According to Garuda's statement, the first of the A-330-300
\naircraft, powered by Trent 700 Rolls-Royce engines, will be
\ndelivered in December this year and will be used on regional
\nroutes, to destinations such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan,
\nGuangzhou and Australia,<\/p>\n
Garuda currently operates a 60-aircraft fleet, including three
\nB-737-400s, six B-747-200s, 10 A-300-600s, nine Airbus A-300-B4s,
\nsix MD-11s and six DC-10s, seven B-737-400s, eight B-737-300s and
\nfive F-28s.<\/p>\n
The statement said that Saturday's A-330-300 leasing agreement
\ninvolved Garuda's president Soepandi, Airbus' chief operating
\nofficer Volker von Tein and Morgan Grenfell's chief executive for
\nthe Asia-Pacific region Hans Beck.<\/p>\n
Grenfell is the investment banking arm of Deutsche bank AG,
\nwhich cooperates with a consortium of leading international banks
\nin the A-330-300 leasing operation for Garuda.<\/p>\n
Grenfell is also involved in the supply of 16 CN-235 aircraft
\nworth $147.2 million between Merpati Nusantara, a subsidiary of
\nGaruda, and the state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT IPTN.
\nMerpati and Morgan have agreed on a 10-year lease contract with a
\nfee of $70,000 per aircraft per month.<\/p>\n
Airbus, a consortium of French Aerospatiale, German Daimler
\nBenz Aerospace, British Aerospace and Spanish CASA, started to
\nserve Garuda in 1979. (icn)<\/p>\n
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