IBA won the coveted ‘Appraiser of the Year’ award at last night’s gala ceremony hosted by Airline Economics in Dublin. The leading consultancy was voted for by industry peers across aviation finance in recognition of IBA’s independent valuation expertise and significant depth of experience. IBA provides appraisals and advisory services to 49 of the top 50 lessors.
Headed by Dr Stuart Hatcher, Chief Intelligence Officer, the valuations team at IBA comprises over 20 analysts including seven ISTAT appraisers with the largest number of senior appraisers of any aircraft valuations and consulting firm worldwide. This includes Alice Gondry, Head of OperationsIntelligence who recently achieved senior status, and the only officially recognised Chinese ISTAT presence through David Yu.
Phil Seymour, CEO, is justifiably proud of his firm’s achievement. “IBA is committed to nurturing and retaining talent within the business. We invest in our appraisers and technology to deliver high calibre business acumen that reassures clients and guides decision making and 2017 was a transformational year for IBA” he says. “We continued to expand our global presence in Asia with a significant growth of new clients from China, Korea and Japan. We also established IBA Aero Ireland and as a result of this growth strategy our valuations revenue increased by 22%, year-onyear.”
IBA observed that the most interest in the alternative investment space in 2017 year was around freighters and capital markets. For freighter investors, they developed models to provide both feedstock values around 737-8s as they become viable conversion options, and modelled the alternative returns in relation to part-out, extension, sale or conversion. Relatedly, using IBA.iQ’s lease-end data it developed models to identify stock for operators looking to beat the market to attractive assets.
Across more traditional valuations areas IBA provided valuations and advice to various parties in relation to the acquisition of AWAS by DAE and it supported numerous asset based securitisations, including the WAVE, METAL and S-Jets transactions, providing a range of valuations and cash flow forecasting. IBA’s unique blend of aircraft lease management and cost benchmarking expertise creates a broad set of inputs for adjusting values for maintenance events, less reliant on OEM data.
Additionally, IBA launched IBA.iQ, the new fleets and values database. IBA.iQ provides the most comprehensive data around many crucial areas and it is recognised by industry users for the speed of the system and the accuracy regarding lease end dates. Throughout 2018 IBA will be adding numerous modules around engines, macroeconomics, and operator rankings to provide the broadest and deepest desktop intelligence.
“In the dynamic world of aviation knowing the true value of your assets is reliant upon accurate data, professional insight supported by experience, and shrewd analysis of risk” concludes Seymour. “Trusting the source of that professional evaluation enables companies to plan their business strategies with confidence.”