Boeing customer Lion Air gets financing for 30 jets

Indonesian low-cost carrier Lion Air, which has a whopping 162 of Boeing's newest 737-900ERs on order, has won approval for more than $1 billion in loan support from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, allaying concerns that it would not find sufficient financing.

Ex-Im Bank's board approved $238 million in financing and made a nonbinding preliminary commitment of a further $841 million if Lion Air formally requests it. The bank said the combined amount will support the deliveries of 30 of the 737-900ERs from Boeing.

Bank spokeswoman Linda Formella said the money could be provided either as a loan guarantee or as a direct loan, depending on Lion Air's requirements.

"Ex-Im Bank welcomes this opportunity to support the export of Boeing aircraft to Lion Air," said Ex-Im vice president of transportation, Robert Morin.

Carol Sexton, Southeast Asia managing director of Boeing Capital, the company's financing unit, said in a statement that the financing would support jobs at Boeing in Washington state, and at engine-maker CFM International in Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as at hundreds of suppliers to both.

Last month at a conference in Phoenix, Ariz., Morin said the Ex-Im Bank sees the global credit crunch creating a big shortfall in airplane financing this year. He said the Bank will accordingly increse its financing in the sector, up from the $4-5 billion typical in recent years to around $8-9 billion in 2009.

The bank's explicit purpose is to support jobs in the U.S. by offering export financing.

"This is game day for the Ex-Im Bank," Morin said in Phoenix.

Lion Air's unfilled Boeing orders are worth more than $13 billion at list prices. Market data from aircraft valuation firm Avitas pegs the true value of those jets, after standard discounts, at more than $8 billion.

Dominic Gates: 206-464-2963 or dgates@seattletimes.com