Think of a financier…
If I ask you who the biggest buyers of business jets are, what are the first ones you think of?
NetJets and VistaJet probably came to your mind straight away. But most people won’t instantly have thought of Minsheng Financial Leasing, the Chinese leasing company with about 70 aircraft on order. But it was one of the main talking points at our Asian conference last month, following a presentation by Zhang Bo, head of their aircraft team.
Minsheng is unique. It places large speculative orders and has taken delivery of 60 aircraft already. This means that it has financed around 30% of mainland’s China total business jet fleet.
But this is just the start. It has recently acquire an operator – now called Minsheng International Jet – and plans to launch a fractional operator. It is even about to start building a new business jet airport near Beijing.
It is hard to even imagine a western financier choosing to take on even one of these projects. But Minsheng is confident that its private bank connections give it a unique insight into what Chinese customers want.
With more orders coming soon and China becoming an increasingly important market, Minsheng is set to become a more familiar name to everyone.
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