Ethiopian Airlines concluded a USD 100 Million deal with the Bahrain based Ibdar Bank for the lease of four Bombardier Q400 NextGen planes.

According to Ibdar, the deal is the first sharia complaint deal the bank concluded in the African aviation sector.

The deal is Idbar will lease the Canadian-built aircraft to Ethiopian for 12 years. The deal includes there is an option for an additional four planes, which will take the number of leased planes to eight.

Out of the entire USD 100 Million deal, USD 22 Million of it is going to be financed through equity deal. As to the rest of the deal it is going to be covered by a funding agreement with Export Development Canada.

The current deal Idbar’s concluded with Ethiopian is its second Islamic aircraft leasing transaction. Back in 2011 it concluded a six years lease agreement for Boeing 777-200ER with Emirates Airline. In addition to this, the Bank has participated in a small syndicated deal for Bahrain's Gulf Air in 2009.

Source: Reuters