WLFC

Good day. Welcome to the Willis Lease Finance Corporation First Quarter 2026 earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. We would like to remind you that during this conference call, management will be making forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our expectations related to financial guidance, outlook for the company, and our expected investment and growth initiatives. Please note these forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements reflect WLFC's views only as of today. They should not be relied upon as representative of views as of any subsequent date, and WLFC undertakes no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. These statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations.

For further discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect WLFC's financial results, please refer to its filings with the SEC, including, without limitation, WLFC's most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q, annual report on Form 10-K, and other periodic reports, which are available on the investor relations section of WLFC's website at www.wlfc.global/investor-relations. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Austin Willis, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator, thank you all for joining us today to discuss Willis Lease Finance Corporation's 1st quarter 2026 financial results. On our call today, I'm joined by Scott Flaherty, our Chief Financial Officer. We have posted an accompanying presentation on our website to give further details supporting our remarks. This morning, I'd like to start by taking a step back and discussing our industry's macro environment. Since the conflict began in Iran, we haven't seen a material impact on pricing or lease rates. Demand remains robust. We have minimal exposure in the Middle East, where the effects are being felt most acutely. Airlines are reacting to higher fuel prices and the prospect of fuel shortages by reducing capacity, in some cases, flying less frequently, and in other cases, parking aircraft. Should high fuel prices persist into the fall, we expect the airlines to feel liquidity pressure.

Historically, we have been counter-cyclical in such environments. When airlines are trying to preserve cash, they tend to opt for leasing solutions rather than overhauling engines for $10 million or more, which drives up utilization in our portfolio. We have seen this phenomenon firsthand following prior periods of macro disruption. If fuel prices remain elevated longer than anticipated, some of the parked aircraft will likely be retired, and that could lead to lower lease rates and values for mid-life aircraft. We would expect changes in mid-life engine values to be more resilient than aircraft as they will continue to support shop visit avoidance, as I described earlier. However, and even in spite of this, we consider ourselves to be well-hedged with over 50% of our engine portfolio in modern technology, specifically the LEAP, GTF, and GEnx engine types.

Another way for airlines to address short-term liquidity concerns is with sale and leaseback transactions for their unencumbered aircraft and engines. Our capital strategy over the past year has positioned us well to capture such opportunities. Turning to the quarter, we ended with $4.1 billion of assets under management, approximately $1.5 billion of capital that is ready to deploy through our discretionary funds and capital through our joint ventures to include a $750 million revolving credit facility. This, combined with undrawn amounts in our recently expanded $1.75 billion revolver and our low net leverage of 2.7 times, we are positioned for significant growth. As we have talked about in prior quarters, the aviation market remains increasingly engine-centric, and that dynamic is driving demand across our platform.

Engine availability remains a key constraint to both delivering new aircraft and keeping operational aircraft flying. We continue to see extended maintenance timelines and sustained pressure on spare engine supply. This environment supports strong lease rate dynamics and ongoing demand for our leasing and services offerings. Continued strong demand for our products and services helped us deliver first quarter Adjusted EBITDA of $124 million and fully diluted earnings per share of $3.26 as compared to $2.21 during the same period in 2025. We have also seen strong stock price appreciation during the first quarter, despite market volatility driven by geopolitical uncertainties. We attribute this primarily to the strength of our underlying business as well as investors' confidence in our growth strategy, both on and off balance sheet.

This strategy will deliver synergistic benefits through fees and carried interest. Along with additional advantages, such as a larger asset base that we can service through our two engine MROs, our airframe MRO, our parts business, and our consulting business. Let me take a few minutes to discuss the three key areas of our business, leasing, Willis Aviation Capital, and services. First, leasing. Leasing utilization for the quarter was up to 86% from 80% year-over-year, and the lease rate factor of our on-lease assets was 1.04%. As mentioned earlier, we continue to modernize the portfolio towards the next generation of assets. Although higher in value, we are experiencing similar lease rate factors as compared to the current generation of assets.

These factors led the company to experience an all-time high lease rent revenue during the first quarter of 2026, totaling $77 million, demonstrating the strength of the aviation market, demand for next-generation assets, and improved lease rate dynamics. We were able to effectively optimize asset placement across global customer base through our programs such as ConstantThrust. Under ConstantThrust, operators' engines are seamlessly exchanged with fully serviceable replacements from our pool of owned and managed assets as they come off wing. This program specifically leverages WLFC's global expertise in spare engine provisioning, technical management, and maintenance and repair services to ensure uninterrupted operational performance for airlines worldwide. Earlier this year, we expanded our ConstantThrust program by signing a new purchase and leaseback agreement with Nauru Airlines for CFM56-7B engines.

The agreement will provide Nauru with reliable, ConstantThrust support for the airline's entire fleet of CFM56-7B engines, powering Boeing 737-700 and 800 aircraft for six-plus years. Turning to Willis Aviation Capital, or WAC. Last quarter, we announced Willis Aviation Capital, which is a natural extension of our business and enables us to manage third-party capital alongside our balance sheet and significantly expand our addressable market. This creates a flywheel effect, where greater scale drives more opportunities to deploy our services across a larger asset base, enhancing returns and accelerating platform growth. Through our partnerships with Blackstone Credit & Insurance and Liberty Mutual Investments, as well as our existing joint ventures, WAC now manages more than $2.7 billion of committed or deployed capital.

In the first quarter of 2026, we funded approximately $90 million of finance leases through our Liberty Mutual fund, which do not generate gain on sale, as these were par sales to the fund. In April, we began selling operating lease engines from our balance sheet to the Blackstone fund. We are encouraged by the early traction we're seeing with a solid pipeline of opportunities as we move through the year. This platform is designed to generate high-quality recurring earnings through the management fees and carried interest, while also driving incremental demand for our services capabilities. Finally, services. Our services businesses remain a core strength for our platform, reducing both off-wing time across our fleet and turnaround times for our own customers' assets, as compared to larger MROs.

As I've mentioned before, the outlook for engine shop visits remains strong through the mid-2030s, and our services businesses remain a key differentiator, playing a critical role as engine maintenance demand grows. Having multiple geographically distinct hospital shops, we are well-positioned to capitalize on demand across those markets, since we are the low-cost alternative to more costly full overhauls. To meet growing demand for the technical and maintenance expertise of our engine shops, which contributed revenue of $10 million in the first quarter, exclusive of intercompany sales, and to enhance our vertical integration, we continue to invest in deepening our in-house technical capabilities. In February, we announced the successful completion of our first core engine restoration of a CFM56-7B in our U.S.-based Willis Engine Repair Center.

We have branded this new capability as Willis Module Shop, allowing us to complete comprehensive core restorations that reduce maintenance costs, improve turnaround time, and strengthen the control over our assets. Over time, we believe this capability will be an important driver of both operational efficiency and portfolio returns. Now to touch briefly on our capital deployment priorities. To support future growth across our platform, we have increased our financial flexibility through an amendment and extension of our revolving credit facility from $1 billion-$1.75 billion. The amended facility positions us with the liquidity and flexibility to further expand our business. Additionally, we closed two Japanese Operating Lease with Call Option, or JOLCO transactions, totaling approximately $50 million. These transactions reflect the strength of our lender relationships and our ongoing focus on maintaining a well-capitalized, flexible balance sheet. Scott will speak to the specifics of these transactions momentarily.

We have also continued to invest in top talent where we see growth opportunities, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. We welcomed Marilyn Gan as Head of Origination for the region, strengthening our ability to source and execute opportunities in a key growth market. Looking ahead, we remain well-positioned to deploy capital across a broad range of opportunities. We see attractive prospects across leasing and services, supported by strong long-term fundamentals in the aviation market. We also remain committed to returning capital to our shareholders, as evidenced by the quarterly recurring dividend of $0.40 per share that we declared earlier this quarter. Overall, we are confident in our strategy and the progress we are making as we continue to scale our platform and deliver long-term value for our shareholders. With that, I'll hand it over to Scott Flaherty, our CFO, to discuss our financial performance in greater depth.

Thank you, Austin, and good morning all. Another strong quarter for Willis Lease Finance. Our first quarter experienced record quarterly lease rent revenues of $77.4 million, quarterly Adjusted EBITDA of $123.8 million, $36.8 million of quarterly earnings before taxes, or EBT, and $23.7 million of net income attributable to common shareholders, or $3.26 of diluted weighted average income per common share. Walking through the P&L, a strong top-line performance reflected solid growth in nearly every revenue channel. Record lease rent revenues of $77.4 million in the quarter. 14.2% quarter-over-quarter growth in lease rent revenues were driven by a combination of increased portfolio size, utilization, and lease rates. Our owned portfolio at the end of the first quarter was $2.86 billion.

Our owned portfolio is reflected on the balance sheet as equipment held for operating lease, maintenance rights, notes receivable, and investment in sales-type leases. Average utilization was up from 79.9% in Q1 of 2025 to 85.8% in Q1 of 2026, a nearly six-point pickup. Additionally, we continue to see a solid average on-lease lease rate factor across the portfolio of 1.04% compared to 1.0% in the first quarter of 2025. Maintenance reserve revenues for the quarter were $55.5 million, up slightly from $54.9 million in the first quarter of 2025. $12.4 million of these maintenance reserve revenues were long-term maintenance reserve revenue associated with engines coming off lease and the associated elimination of any maintenance reserve liabilities, as well as the receipt of end-of-the-lease cash payments.

$12.3 million of this related to one engine coming off lease and included both the release of a maintenance reserve and the receipt of an end-of-lease cash payment. The $12.4 million in long-term maintenance reserve revenue compared to $9.6 million in the first quarter of 2025. $43.1 million of our maintenance reserve revenues were short-term maintenance reserves compared to $45.3 million in the prior comparable period. Spare parts and equipment sales increased by $3.4 million or 18.9% to $21.7 million in the first quarter of 2026 compared to $18.2 million in the first quarter of 2025. Spare parts sales were $10 million and $16 million in Q1 of 2026 and 2025 respectively, a decrease of $5.8 million.

The decrease in spare parts sales reflects variations in the timing of sales to third parties and were not reflective of $7.5 million of intra-company sales, which was up from the prior comparable period and eliminated in our financial consolidation. These intra-company sales represent the added value of having a vertically integrated parts business. Equipment sales in the first quarter of 2026 were $11.4 million, up $9.2 million from the prior comparable period. These revenues reflect the sale of three engines that were not previously leased. The trading profit on sale of these three engines was $5.7 million, representing a 50% margin on these sales, validating the significant discount that exists between the book value and the market value of our portfolio.

Equipment sales for the three months ended March 31, 2025 were $2.2 million for the sale of one engine. Gain on sale of leased equipment, together with our gain on sale of financial assets, a net revenue metric, aggregated to $18.4 million in the first quarter, up $13.6 million from the $4.8 million in the comparable prior period. The $18 million gain on leased equipment was associated with the sale of 14 engines for $60 million of gross sales. Included in our engine sales were five engines sold to our Willis Mitsui joint venture.

The gain on sale represents an effective 30% margin on such sales, further validating the significant discount that exists between the book value and the market value of our portfolio. The company recognized $0.4 million of gain on sale of financial assets, where we sold 11 notes receivable and investment in sales-type leases for $87.1 million of gross sales, which generally reflects par sales of these financial assets. Maintenance services revenue, which represents fleet management, engine and aircraft storage and repair services, and revenues related to management of fixed-base operator services, was $9.8 million in the first quarter of 2026, up 74.9% from $5.6 million in the comparable period in 2025.

The increase reflects growth in engine and aircraft storage and repair services, especially when factoring the lack of comparable period fleet management revenues in the current period due to the sale of our BAMO business in late Q2 2025. Gross margins grew to 9.3% from 4.6% in the prior comparable period. Our maintenance service offering enhance our customer program solutions and provide vertical integration to increase the profitability of our owned and managed assets. Management and advisory fees represent the fees generated through our asset management efforts. These fees include those made from our joint ventures and other managed assets, as well as through our new fund strategy announced at the end of 2025.

Management and advisory fees increased by $5.9 million-$7.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2026, from $2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025. This increase was primarily driven by $4.9 million of fees earned from our LMI or Liberty Mutual Investments in the company's role as general partner. The LMI fund commenced operations in March of 2026 and reimbursed formation and other costs to the company, which flowed through both revenue and the G&A lines of our P&L. On the expense side of the equation, depreciation in the first quarter increased by $5.2 million or 20.6% to $30.2 million as compared to $25 million in the prior comparable quarter.

The increase is primarily due to an increase in the size of our lease portfolio and the timing of placing acquired engines on lease, which starts their depreciation through the P&L. Write-down of equipment was $1.1 million in the first quarter, reflecting the write-down of one engine. There was $2.1 million of write-downs of equipment for the three months ended March 31, 2025, reflecting the write-down of five engines. G&A expenses increased by $8.9 million or 18.6% to $56.6 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to $47.7 million for the first quarter of the prior comparable period. The increase primarily reflects a $12.5 million increase in personnel costs, which included an increase of $6.9 million in share-based compensation and an increase of $4.1 million in wages.

The increase in share-based compensation reflects appreciation of the market value of the company's equity, as well as share awards to new personnel who support the continued growth of the company. In January of 2025, the company modified its share-based compensation program due to the significant rise in our stock price. The nearly 300% increase in the company's stock price since mid-2024 had a P&L effect as the company's historical plan was structured with predetermined share grants occurring after the achievement of specified goals or performance metrics. Generally, the share grants had a three-year vesting, which created a non-cash P&L effect over the vesting period. Our new share-based compensation plan will reduce share-based compensation expense savings, but such savings will not be fully realized until prior grants flow through the P&L.

The $4.1 million increase in wages was driven by higher headcount to support the company's growth. Contributing to the higher G&A cost was $4.9 million of costs which were recharged to the LMI fund, with the associated revenue of $4.9 million included in management and advisory fees. Lastly, G&A also included a $2 million increase in acquisition, financing, and divestiture-related expenses as compared to the prior period. Partially offsetting these increases was an $11.7 million reduction in project expense due to our decision to cease investment in and pursue strategic alternatives for the Sustainable Aviation Fuels project. Technical expense was $9.7 million in the first quarter, up from $6.2 million in the comparable period of 2025. Technical expense generally relates to unplanned maintenance, whereas engine performance restorations tend to be planned and capitalized events.

Net finance costs were up $7.6 million to $39.7 million in the first quarter, compared to $32.1 million in the comparable period in 2025. The increase in costs was predominantly related to $7 million in loss on debt extinguishment related to refinancings completed in the quarter. Less than $1 million of the $7 million was a cash expense, as the lion's share was related to an acceleration of previously incurred capitalized issuance costs. Total indebtedness remained relatively flat at $2.25 billion as compared to $2.23 billion in the comparable period of 2025. Our weighted average cost of debt capital, inclusive of swap agreements, was 5.12%. The company also picked up $3 million in ratable earnings from our investments, which include our joint ventures and fund interests.

Income from investments was up 126% and most significantly influenced by our Willis Mitsui joint venture. The company produced $23.7 million of net income attributable to common shareholders, which factors in GAAP taxes and the cost of our preferred equity, which was up 52.9% from the comparable period in 2025. Diluted weighted average income per share was $3.26 per share in the first quarter, up 47.5% from the $2.21 in the first quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter of 2026 was $123.8 million, up 19.9% from $103.3 million in the first quarter of 2025. We believe that our Adjusted EBITDA reflects the normalized cash flow generation of the Willis enterprise.

Our Adjusted EBITDA makes adjustments to our net income attributable to common shareholders for income tax expense, interest expense, preferred stock dividends and costs, loss on debt extinguishment, depreciation and amortization expense, stock-based compensation expense, write-down of equipment, acquisition, financing, and divestiture-related expenses, and other discrete gains and expenses. Net cash provided by operating activities was up 38.3%-56.7% in the first quarter of 2026 as compared to $41 million in the first quarter of 2025. The increase was predominantly related to increased net income, the non-cash effects of stock-based compensation, depreciation, and the loss on debt extinguishment expenses, and a period-over-period $10 million increase in cash flows from changes in other assets.

On the financing and capital structure side of the business, the company completed its 7th and 8th JOLCO financings in the first quarter, bringing total JOLCO financings at quarter end to approximately $170 million. In March of 2026, the company amended and extended its existing revolving credit facility, increasing total commitments from $1 billion-$1.75 billion and extending the maturity out to April of 2031. The expansion of our credit facility provides Willis with increased liquidity and flexibility to pursue our growth strategy. Concurrent with the $750 million expansion of our credit facility, we terminated our $500 million warehouse facility. We regularly access the capital markets as we endeavor to source competitively priced capital to help continue to grow our balance sheet and P&L.

In February, we paid our seventh consecutive regular quarterly dividend of $0.40 per share. Subsequent to quarter end, our board of directors declared our eighth consecutive recurring quarterly dividend of $0.40 per share, payable to holders at May 11, 2026 on May 22, 2026. Our recurring dividend provides shareholders with a moderate current cash yield on their investment while not degrading the strong cash flow of our business. With respect to leverage, as defined as total debt obligations, net of cash and restricted cash to equity, inclusive of preferred stock, our leverage ticked lower to 2.68 times at the end of the first quarter of 2026. We have made significant strides over the last several years to reduce leverage to position Willis to be able to access market opportunities when they become available.

With that, I will hand the call back to Austin.

Thank you, Scott. Q1 set in motion great momentum for the year ahead as we track towards our long-term strategy, growing our portfolio on balance sheet and managed assets through Willis Aviation Capital while bringing exciting opportunities to the entire Willis platform. Thank you for joining us on our call today. With that, I will let the operator open up to Q&A.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Again, that is star one to ask a question. We'll pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal. As a reminder, it was star one if you have a question. We'll go to William Waller with M3F. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Excellent-looking quarter. I was wondering if you could comment a bit more on the asset management business, like the Blackstone funds and so on, what the management fee and incentive fee will look like, if there's kind of any general parameters that you could give out as it relates to that.

Hey, Will. Thanks for the question. In terms of the funds, you know, we're not disclosing what the specific management fees are, but I can tell you that they're roughly in line with what's standard for discretionary funds. You know, a percentage of the value of the assets managed and then a percentage of the profitability via carried interest. You know, we started deploying capital into Liberty Mutual in the first quarter, you're really gonna start to see the fees from that come in when we deploy more capital over time. With respect to Blackstone, I think you'll start to see fees kicking in here in the next quarter. As I mentioned earlier on my prepared remarks, we started to deploy capital there in April, just subsequent to the quarter.

You know, I think we're probably going to seed about $200 million from our balance sheet into the Blackstone portfolio, so that's a good starting point, and then hopefully get the remainder deployed in relatively short order.

Great. That's super useful to hear. We think it's a very wise strategy and that you're using all your knowledge to the fullest. We really think highly of that strategy. Thanks for that additional information.

Thank you, Will.

With no other questions holding, I'll turn the conference back for any additional or closing remarks.

Thank you very much. We appreciate everybody giving us their time today, and I guess we answered all the questions in our lengthy prepared remarks. Thank you very much. Take care.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's call. We thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at this time.