HI Uplift: GD Helicopter Finance marks first anniversary with €200m portfolio

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by Mike Stones
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GDHF

GDHF delivered an Airbus H175 on lease to Omni Helicopters International in January.

A year after its launch, lessor GD Helicopter Finance (GDHF) is marking its anniversary having built a €200m ($229m) lease portfolio of 16 aircraft. The lessor’s CEO Michael York thinks it’s “a pretty good start,” but is hungry for more.

The business launched with an order book of 50 H160s and quickly signed with Airbus an order book for 20 H175s. A few months later GDHF again signed orders, this time with Leonardo Helicopters for 10 AW189s to go with three previously contracted AW189s.

“We have got good traction,” York tells us. “We have two finance facilities in place – a publicly announced one for €77m [$87.4m] and another [undisclosed] one to purchase multiple super mediums. After drawing down on both finance facilities, we’ve purchased multiple H160s and super mediums, six factory new deliveries for global customers – we wrote 14 leases and also have several LOIs [letters of intent].”

But it is the Airbus H160 medium helicopter – positioned between the smaller H145 and the larger H175 in the manufacturer’s lineup – that the lessor sees as unlocking perhaps the biggest market potential – at least in the short term and complemented by super medium aircraft.

‘A fantastic asset’

“We feel that the 50 H160s are a fantastic asset,” he says. “It is new technology and truly multi-role and it replaces S-76s, 412s, N3s, and most AW139 missions.” The lessor believes the H160 will gain more traction as people see it in service in the Gulf of Mexico with the likes of Shell and PHI and as it enters the Brazilian markets. GDHF has already delivered the first of two H160’s to Brazil. Late last year it also delivered the first of two Airbus H160s on lease to helicopter operator Chipsan Aviation in India. The first H160s to operate in India will be deployed onshore, servicing government contracts and flying corporate missions.

“At GDHF’s launch, we saw a tight helicopter market. There were big lessors with fully utilised portfolios and a majority of the ageing [Sikorsky] S-92 were fulfilling the long-range offshore mission,” says York. “We saw a future undersupply of replacement super mediums and mediums in offshore. So that is the core thesis behind our order book philosophy.”

GDHF judges demand for replacement medium helicopters to be between 30 to 40 units a year. Specifically, for factory new aircraft that are IOGP690 compliant, incorporating new technology and delivering cost efficiencies for most medium-range missions. They will be replacing ageing fleets of Bell 412s, Sikorsky S-76s, N3s or Eurocopter AS365 Dauphins and older model AW139s.

Oil and gas markets

But ageing is not a condition confined to medium helicopters. In the heavier, long-range space, GDHF sees a similarly ageing fleet of about 280 aircraft. Those consist of about 190 S-92s and 90 super mediums with around 45 H175s and 45 AW189s. It predicts, from this year, the industry will witness S-92s retiring at a rate of about 10 per year – after their operational life in oil and gas markets. (Sikorsky believes its recent $100m-plus investment into the new S-92 Phase IV main gearbox will breathe new life into the venerable old workhorse).

“We see the helicopters having a 30-year mission life, 20 years typically in their primary offshore mission,” says York. “With the S-92 out of full-scale production we see additional AW189 and the H175 needing to come into the industry totalling about 190 units over the next 10 years. We are going to supply 30, 35 or 40 of those, depending on how many on-market transactions we do, focusing mostly on oil and gas but also some search and rescue, EMS [emergency medical services] wherever there’s a need.”

GDHF is convinced oil and gas will remain a key part of the world’s energy mix for the next 20 to 30 years. “It may shrink slightly as a percentage of that energy mix, but the nominal oil and gas production will have to stay the same or rise,” says York. “Now that means in a depleting resource, which oil and gas is, you have to continue reinvesting in upstream capex to explore and produce. That all requires helicopters and, increasingly, that requires longer range helicopters because you’re going to see deep water and ultra deep water become more of those sources as we push further out.” This is where the super mediums will play an increasing role replacing retiring S-92s.

Helicopter operator GDAT

York remains unphased by the current turmoil in international markets sparked by the apparent vagaries of US trade policy. As a former military helicopter and F/A-18 fighter pilot, he is long accustomed to accommodating the unexpected. For him, GDHF’s mission, backed by company owner Peter Jiang, also the founder and chairman of Chinese helicopter operator GDAT, remains unchanged.

“Last year, we announced to the market a different and very disciplined and tight business model around the medium and long-range mission critical helicopter space. Our thesis is that there are a lot of aircraft in that space that need replacing in the next five to 10 years and we didn’t see that the clear requirement for new metal was being met by the market. Our order books will help meet that market demand”

When we spoke to York a year ago, he set out his aim of achieving assets under management valued at €1bn ($1.138bn), based on a portfolio of H160s, H175, AW139s and AW189s within 10 years. One year on, GDHF seems on course to fulfil that mission.

Meanwhile, York and other leading industry figures will be taking part in our Helicopter Investor London conference on June 4th and 5th. Read more about the annual event dedicated to fast-moving world of helicopter finance here.

 

Helicopter Investor News

HI Uplift Dashboard: Helicopters for sale

Multi engine

  • Total for sale/lease: 280
  • Percentage for sale/lease: 3.74
  • Absorption rate: 3.68 months
  • Total fleet: 7,480.

Single engine

  • Total for sale/lease: 424
  • Percentage for sale/lease: 3.67
  • Absorption rate: 3.85 months
  • Total fleet: 11,561.

Source: Amstat, April 25rd, 2025.

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