レバレッジドリース

A leveraged lease is a financing arrangement in which the lessor acquires high-cost assets like real estate and airplanes using a mix of equity and borrowed funds and leases them to the lessee.

It usually involves three parties, the lessor, the lessee, and the lender. The lessor owns and manages the asset. The lessee uses the asset and makes lease payments, and the lender provides nonrecourse financing.

Here, nonrecourse financing refers to an arrangement where lease payments and the asset secure the loan. 

In the case of default, the lender can claim only the leased asset.

Consider Delta Airlines, planning to lease an aircraft. 

For this, a special-purpose entity might be created, where lenders finance eighty percent of the aircraft’s cost, and the lessor contributes the remaining twenty percent. 

The lessee’s payments are first used towards loan repayment, and surplus payments contribute to the lessor’s returns after repaying the loan.

The lessor benefits from tax shields such as depreciation and interest deductions.

Leveraged leases conserve capital and offer an efficient solution for financing high-cost assets.