Willis Lease Finance Corporation has completed the acquisition of 12 commercial aircraft and 13 aircraft engines, expanding its leasing portfolio, a transaction that matters broadly because it adds meaningful scale to one of the industry's largest independent engine lessors, and matters specifically to accountancy professionals because KPMG Ireland acted as the seller's tax and accounting adviser, underlining how much of the world's aviation leasing due diligence work routes through Irish accountancy firms regardless of where the buyer or seller is based.

Willis Lease Finance Corporation is a Coconut Creek, Florida-headquartered aviation services group and the largest independent lessor of commercial aircraft engines, managing leasing, technical and asset management operations worldwide, including a presence in Dublin.

Milbank LLP advised WLFC on legal matters, with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP providing accounting, tax and financial due diligence services; Vedder advised the seller on legal matters, with KPMG Ireland handling tax and accounting.

KPMG Ireland's role is not incidental to where the aircraft and engines happen to be registered or held. Ireland holds an estimated 60 to 65 per cent of the global aircraft leasing market, with 14 of the world's top 15 lessors based there, largely structured through Section 110 special purpose vehicles that require Irish audit and tax compliance regardless of where the underlying transacting parties are headquartered.

That structure means a US lessor buying assets from another party can still generate substantial Irish accountancy work, since the vehicles holding leased aircraft and engines typically sit within Ireland's tax-neutral SPV regime and require ongoing audited accounts to retain that status.

The volume behind this is significant: Irish-based lessors collectively manage close to 150 billion dollars in aviation assets, an asset base that generates recurring audit, tax and compliance fees for the Irish accountancy firms retained to service it, largely independent of which international lessors are buying or selling on any given transaction.

For the sector, deals like this confirm that aviation leasing remains one of the most consistent sources of specialist audit and advisory work available to Irish practices, tied to asset volume rather than to the nationality of any single deal's counterparties.

Source: AviTrader / The Irish Times / AerCap