How have public aircraft leasing companies performed? How have public aircraft leasing companies performed? How have public aircraft leasing companies performed?

This is the first article in the KPMG Aviation Finance Thought Leadership Series exploring more in-depth analytical aspects of the aviation finance markets.

Aircraft Lessor indexes (equal weighted) including and excluding the acquired and delisted public lessors – AVOL, AYR, and GLS are analyzed and compared against benchmarks in terms of returns, volatility and correlations.

• Inclusive and Exclusive Lessor Indexes underperform the S&P 500 under both price and total return cases. 
• Dividends account for a significant difference in the price and total return profiles for both Inclusive and Exclusive Lessors Indexes. 
• Inclusive and Exclusive Lessor Indexes outperform the 3M Libor benchmarks and significantly underperform the hypothetical 15% return PE fund. 
• Inclusive and Exclusive Lessor industry indexes are more correlated to the S&P 500 under both price and total return cases than would be suggested by industry participants and commentators 
• Inclusive and Exclusive Lessor Indexes are very weakly positive correlated to 3M Libor while mildly positive correlation with the 15% return PE fund.