Guinness Peat Aviation

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Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA) was a Commercial Aircraft Sales and Leasing company set up in 1975 by Dr. Tony Ryan. At its peak, GPA had 280 aircraft on lease to 83 airlines and was valued at $4 billion. The company increased its net profits in 1990 to $242 million at which time it was the world's largest aircraft leasing company.[1]

Former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald and former British chancellor of the exchequer Nigel Lawson were among GPA's directors. Lawson joined the board of GPA in February 1990 but he also became chairman of GPA Financial, a subsidiary company.[2]

In 1990, GPA stunned the aviation world by placing a $17 billion order for 700 new aircraft over the following decade. A new company, GPA Helicopters Ltd., was set up in June 1990 as a joint venture with CHC Helicopter to acquire, own and lease helicopters worldwide.[3]

Contents

[edit] Downfall

However, the decision to float the company on the stock market in 1992, during an aviation industry downturn following the 1991 Gulf War, proved disastrous, as international financial institutions refused to buy shares.[4] Unable to raise the capital it needed to continue its ambitious operations, the company plunged into crisis, with some $10 billion in debts, and was bought out by a much larger competitor, GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS). Under GECAS, GPA was restructured and renamed AerFi plc.

AerFi's shareholders included the Texas Pacific Group, owned by Ryanair chairman David Bonderman.

This new company was subsequently sold to Debis AirFinance NV, the aircraft leasing arm of the DaimlerChrysler Group, in 2000.[5]

[edit] Legacy

Many of the directors and staff of GPA subsequently went on to work in other Commercial Aircraft Sales and Leasing firms, such as GECAS, CIT, ILFC, Debis (now AerCap), RBS and Aircastle. The availability of this cadre of highly trained specialists in Ireland is one of the principal reasons (along with a favourable corporate tax environment associated with the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin) why the country has become one of the worldwide centres of the Commercial Aircraft Sales and Leasing industry.

[edit] Sponsorship

During the Ethiopian famine, GPA sponsored two airlifts of emergency supplies in October and November of 1984.[6] A number of other, mainly artistic endeavours, benefited from sponsorship by GPA that included the following, among others. In 1988 the first GPA Dublin International Piano Competition took place and was won by Philippe Cassard.[7] In 1984 Robert Armstrong won the Guinness Peat Aviation Awards for Emerging Artists[8] and in 1986 Eithne Jordan won during the show held in Dublin. One of the exhibitors was Vincent Killowry and in 1987 GPA bought most of the works at his first one man show in Limerick.[9] In 1989 John Banville received the Guinness Peat Aviation Book Award for his novel The Book of Evidence, also shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction. Also in 1989 the Foynes Flying Boat Museum [11], at its inception, was sponsored as the GPA Foynes Flying Boat Museum.

A statue of Daedalus, sculpted by John Behan was presented to the people of Ennis to mark the town's 750th anniversary in 1990.[10]

[edit] Sources

  1. ^ [1] New York Times article Guinness Peat In Joint Venture (retrieved 2 August 2006)
  2. ^ [2] Spinwatch: Ministers and the Money Men (retrieved 27 September 2006)
  3. ^ [3] New York Times article Guinness Peat In Joint Venture (retrieved 2 August 2006)
  4. ^ [4] Irish Independent article Airline crises to hasten mergers among plane lessors (retrieved 2 August 2006) (Requires registration)
  5. ^ [5] The Sunday Business Post article 'Ryanisation' of Aer Lingus and Aer Rianta (retrieved 2 August 2006)
  6. ^ [6] Irish parliamentary debate Aid for Developing Countries (retrieved 4 August 2006)
  7. ^ [7] New York Times review of Philippe Cassard New York debut at Alice Tully Hall (retrieved 2 August 2006)
  8. ^ [8] Robert Armstrong's recent exhibitions (retrieved 2 August 2006)
  9. ^ [9] Vincent Killowry bio (retrieved 2 August 2006
  10. ^ [10] Inthewire website (retrieved 4 August 2006)

[edit] External link

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