Taiwanese tycoon Richard Tsai and Chinese financier Xiao Jianhua are holding discussions to assist in financing a USD4.2bn (EUR3.1bn) takeover offer for the aircraft leasing arm of US insurer American International Group Inc, Bloomberg reported today citing three unnamed sources.A group of mostly Chinese investors led by Hong Kong-based P3 Investments agreed in December to acquire an 80% stake in California-based International Lease Finance Corp (ILFC) from AIG, but failed to meet several deadlines in connection with the sale process.
According to Bloomberg's insiders, there are still a number of parties that mull whether to take part in the deal. Two of the sources said that Tsai's family and firms it controls would acquire as much as a majority interest in the consortium. Meanwhile, Xiao's participation would mainly involve providing funding, another informed person said.
One other source also told the news agency that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US would only clear a transaction involving ILFC if there is no dominant stockholder in the bidding group.
The consortium is now trying to arrange a USD2.1bn funding from lenders such as Taiwan's Mega International Commercial Bank Co and Bank of Taiwan, two insiders added.