The International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) was an

aircraft lessor Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without the financial burden of buying them, and to provide tempora ...

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 (ILFC). ...

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

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

GECAS GECAS (GE Capital Aviation Services) was an Irish–American commercial aviation financing and leasing company. AerCap acquired the company from GE Capital on November 1, 2021. GECAS was the largest commercial airline leasing/financing company in ...

unit, had more aircraft. It leased

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

and

Airbus Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...

aircraft to major airlines worldwide.

History

Father and son team

Leslie Gonda Leslie Gonda (August 20, 1919 – March 16, 2018) was a Hungarian-born American businessman, philanthropist, and Holocaust survivor. He was the co-founder (with his son Louis Gonda) of International Lease Finance Corporation. Early life Gonda wa ...

and Louis L. Gonda founded ILFC in 1973 along with

Steven F. Udvar-Házy Steven Ferencz Udvar–Házy (; born 1946), also known as István or Steve Hazy, is an American billionaire businessman and the executive chairman of Air Lease Corporation. He is the former chairman and CEO of International Lease Finance Corpor ...

. 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. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people.https://www.aig.com/content/dam/aig/amer ...

(AIG) in 1990, although the unit was still run by Udvar-Hazy until he retired in February 2010, who 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 (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

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 AerCap Holdings N.V. is an Irish aircraft leasing company based in Dublin. It became the largest aircraft leasing company in the world after acquiring International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) in 2014, then GECAS from General Electric in ...

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 and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

Tower) in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. 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