Air Methods Announces Aircraft Refinancing
PR NEWSWIRE - October 23, 2002 07:30
DENVER, Oct 23, 2002 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Air Methods Corporation (Nasdaq: AIRM), the largest air medical transportation company in the United States, today announced that it recently completed refinancing for multiple aircraft under two separate financing agreements. The new financing is expected to reduce lease and interest expense by over $800,000 on an annual basis.
The first agreement involved refinancing for ten leased aircraft within the recently acquired Rocky Mountain Holdings, LLC (RMH) fleet. The refinancing was closed one day following the acquisition and will result in approximately $600,000 in reduced aggregate annual lease payments.
The second agreement, which closed in early October, involved refinancing debt to a lower rate for six aircraft. The previous $7.7 million loan carried a 9.52 percent interest rate. This rate was reduced to 6.72 percent under the new debt agreement. The refinancing resulted in a prepayment penalty of approximately $100,000 which will be more than offset by reduced interest expense within two quarters.
Mr. Aaron Todd, Chief Operating and Financial Officer, stated, "We have already solidified reduced operating expenses related to our acquisition of RMH. The reduction in the prepayment penalty for the Air Methods' indebtedness finally made it feasible to realize savings from these lower rates. These savings fall directly to the bottom line, while in no way impacting our operations. We will continue to look for opportunities to reduce our fleet costs going forward." |
