Willis Lease Finance Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 5, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: WLSC delivered a record quarterly revenue of $195.5 million (+29.4% YoY), EBT of $74.3 million (+28.3% YoY), and net income of $59 million (+41.5% YoY).
  • Positive Sentiment: The engine portfolio yield remains in the high teens and utilization climbed from 82% to 88%, underscoring robust demand for leasing and maintenance solutions.
  • Positive Sentiment: Closed its largest-ever engine ABS, “West 80,” raising $596 million at the tightest spreads to date, and extended its $500 million warehouse facility to improve capital flexibility.
  • Positive Sentiment: Realized a $43 million gain by selling Bridgend Asset Management to its Mitsui JV, reinvesting $22.5 million to unlock value while retaining access to consulting services.
  • Negative Sentiment: SG&A costs rose $15.7 million, driven by accelerated stock-based compensation and general counsel transition charges, though management notes these are one‐off items.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Willis Lease Finance Q2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Willis Knights Finance Corporation q two twenty twenty five 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 WLSC's views only as of today.

Operator

These should not be relied upon as representatives of views as of any subsequent date, and WLSC 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 WLSC's financial results, please refer to its filing 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 the WLSC's website at https:www.wlsc.global/investorrelations. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Austin Willis, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Thank you, operator, and thank you all for joining us today to discuss our second quarter twenty twenty five financial results. On our call today, I'm joined by Scott Flaherty, our Chief Financial Officer and Brian Hole, our President. First and foremost, I'd like to emphasize that this was a record setting quarter for the company. We achieved our highest ever quarterly total revenue, $195,500,000 an increase of 29.4% over the same period last year. This achievement highlights the continued strength of the aviation marketplace, our platform, and our portfolio.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Airlines increasingly rely on our leasing, parts, and maintenance solutions to avoid costly and time consuming engine shop visits, helping to drive the recurring revenues that are the foundation of our business. Our steady performance has enabled us to expand our business while returning capital to our shareholders. One year ago, we announced a policy of paying a common quarterly dividend. And last week, the Board declared our fifth consecutive quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share. Scott will provide a deeper look at our financials.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

So I would like to turn to what we accomplished in the quarter. The momentum from the beginning of the year continues despite any lingering concerns related to tariffs and the impact on trade and economic growth. As we've said in the past, we have designed a robust and durable business model that we believe can generate premium returns across the economic cycle and under a wide variety of market conditions. Fundamentally, the increasing expense of new engines makes leasing a compelling strategy for obtaining spare engines, while our maintenance capabilities offer an attractive alternative for airline operators relative to more conventional maintenance solutions. Additionally, our position as a leading engine focused lessor is supported by our premium differentiated asset portfolio coupled with our integrated maintenance and materials capabilities as well as our deep relationships with aviation operators, OEMs and other key market participants.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

We continue to see positive trends and strength in our core leasing business. The yield of our portfolio as defined by lease and interest revenue plus maintenance reserve revenue divided by net book value is in the high teens. This is attributable to numerous factors, not least of which is our lease rental factor of 1.01% and the steady growth of our utilization from 82% in the June to 86% at the March 2025 to 88% at the June 2025. Operationally, the quarter's results are a testament to the dedication and expertise of our team and the successful execution of our strategic initiatives. It's been a busy quarter for us.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

We purchased or sold 31 engines and four airframes. We completed our largest ever engine ABS, which also achieved our tightest pricing to date. We did our sixth JELCO. We began to see results from our lean business system called STORE. We received over $6,000,000 in grant proceeds from the UK government for our staff initiative, and we entered into a contract with Saffron to build a test cell facility.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Our services are well aligned with the industry's direction of travel as more airlines seek to avoid complexity in favor of a simple operating model to drive efficiency and optimize their businesses. Airlines increasingly rely on our leasing, parts, and maintenance solutions to achieve those objectives by avoiding costly and time consuming shop visits and maintaining large in house maintenance capabilities. I'd like to go into more detail on some of these recent accomplishments. Earlier this year, we launched SOAR, our lean business system built around strategy, operations, actions, and results to ensure we scale efficiently while maintaining the high quality service and products our customers expect. As we grow, SOAR helps us expand operating margins, improve delivery time lines, and attract and retain top talent.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Over the past nine months, we have identified and eliminated weights across critical processes. These efforts have already delivered measurable results. For example, an 85% reduction in time from engine acquisition to lease readiness, and we are starting to see faster lease closings because of simplified workflows. Our quarterly earnings this period were influenced by a few distinct factors. Changes in the way we grant stock based compensation going forward, the increase in our share price and its effect on our 2024 stock based compensation plan, the transition to a new general counsel and the sale of our consulting business.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

As announced earlier in the quarter, we incurred costs related to the departure of our previous general counsel. Saying that, I'm pleased to announce that Cliff Dameron has been appointed GC. Cliff joined us in 2024 from Carlisle Aviation Partners. His experience in aviation and private equity and establishing investment vehicles is proving invaluable as we look to grow our assets under management. Collectively, two of these items led to an increase in SG and A in the second quarter, and I highlight these points to help investors look past these one off impacts that Scott will address in more detail shortly and focus on the continued strength of our underlying operating performance.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Additionally, we sold our consulting and advisory business, Bridgend Asset Management, to Willis Mitsui and Company Engine Support Limited, our existing joint venture with Mitsui and Company. We purchased this business in 2016 and has since grown it considerably in revenue and capabilities. This business is an important part of our differentiated offering and that we rely upon their expertise to guide us on insourcing maintenance risk, particularly as it pertains to constant thrust where we recently signed another agreement with Air India for 26 CFM 56 dash 70 engines. We believe our close collaboration with Mitsui and Company strengthens our platform overall, and the combined ownership will help drive further growth in both the consulting business and the joint venture more generally. This allows us to maintain the same strategic benefits we enjoyed as 100% owners of the consulting business in a way that drives a superior return to our shareholders by bringing in third party equity and fees without diluting shareholders.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Subsequent to the quarter end, in July, we announced that our subsidiary, Willis Aviation Services Limited, secured a commitment from leading leisure airline jet2.com for two base maintenance lines for the upcoming season. Both maintenance lines will be carried out at our Keyside facility, reflecting the demand we referenced earlier and our commitment to serving that demand while creating skilled jobs in The UK aerospace industry. We look forward to updating you on our expansion in the region in quarters and years to come. A few other positive developments I'd like to touch on are tariffs and taxes. We are encouraged by what appears to be an agreement between The US and the EU that has a zero tariff policy between each for aircraft and aircraft parts, of which engines qualify.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

We feel that this is a positive development for The US and The EU as well as ourselves who historically have benefited from the frictionless movement of assets across borders. Additionally, changes regarding the treatment of depreciation and interest in the big beautiful bill are expected to benefit us over the long term. Lastly, I'd like to especially recognize the great work of our finance department and banks in executing West eight, our most recent and largest ABS, which closed during second quarter and is priced inside of the other aviation leasing securitizations coming out around the same time. This is a testament to the market's confidence in our business and the strength of our platform. As we look ahead, we are confident that our operational excellence and commitment to innovation will continue to position WLSC for further growth and value creation.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

And with that, I'll hand it over to Scott Flaherty, our CFO, to discuss our financial performance in greater depth.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Thank you, Austin, and good morning all. We closed out the 2025 with a solid second quarter performance, where the business produced record quarterly revenues of 195,500,000.0, up 29% from the comparable period in 2024. Record earnings before taxes or EBT for the quarter of 74,300,000.0, up 28.3% from the comparable period in 2024. Net income attributable to common shareholders of $59,000,000 for the quarter, up 41.5% from the comparable period in 2024, and yes, another quarterly record for the business.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Continued strong core lease rent and maintenance reserve revenues, our trading profits, all enhanced by our vertically integrated service offerings as well as the recognized value creation associated through the sale of our bridge end asset management consultancy business through our Willis Mitsui joint venture were the key drivers to our profitability for the quarter. Walking through the P and L, as it relates to the top line, core lease rent revenue for the quarter was $72,300,000 up 29.4% from the prior comparable period. And interest revenue, which reflects interest income on long term loan like financings, was $3,600,000 up 59.8% from the prior comparable period. The relative growth we see from the comparable quarter in 2024 was driven by an increase in our equipment held for operating lease, which sits at $2,610,000,000 as of 06/30/2025, as well as growth in our long term loan like financings portfolio. Our total owned portfolio is reflected on our balance sheet as equipment held for operating lease, maintenance rights, notes receivable and investment and sales type leases, which aggregate to 2,830,000,000.00.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Average portfolio utilization was 87.2% for the quarter compared to 83% in the comparable period of 2024. Utilization has been trending up, and we ended the second quarter at a utilization rate of 88.3%. We discussed on our last earnings call how we were getting our Q4 twenty twenty four new GTF purchases on lease, and we are seeing the effects of our efforts in the P and L. Lease rate factors for the portfolio were in line with the comparable period of 2024 at 1%. Maintenance reserve revenues for the quarter were $50,700,000 down $12,200,000 from the prior comparable period, but showing relative strength as you peel back the numbers.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Short term maintenance reserve revenues associated with the cyclical and hourly usage of our engines came in $50,200,000 up 9.5% or $4,400,000 from the comparable quarter in 2024 as we continue to see more engines, specifically of the current generation vintage out with short term lease conditions. And long term maintenance revenues associated with engines coming off lease and the associated release of any maintenance reserve liabilities came in at $500,000 compared to 17,000,000 in the comparable prior period. Fair parts and equipment sales to third parties increased by 24,200,000.0 or 391% to $30,400,000 in Q2 twenty twenty five compared to $6,200,000 in the comparable prior period. This increase was related to equipment sales of $21,100,000 in the quarter, representing the sale of one engine where there was no equipment sales in the comparative prior period. Equipment sales represent the pure trading of an asset that has not been placed on lease.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

These sales are reflected on a gross revenue basis in our P and L. Margin on equipment sales were 6.4%. Spare parts sales of $9,200,000 were up $3,100,000 or 49.3% from the comparable period in 2024. Margins on spare parts sales for the quarter came in at 9.8%. Wasee, our spare parts business, provides valuable feedback in a tight parts market, supporting both the Willis and our customers' fleets.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

The recycling of these spare parts often occurs at one of our two engine MRO facilities, which are located in Coconut Creek, Florida and Bridgend, Wales. Gain on sale of leased equipment, a net revenue metric, was $27,600,000 in the second quarter, up $13,200,000 or 91.2% from the comparable period. This gain was associated gross equipment sales of 91,100,000.0 less economic closing adjustments. Included in this gain was the sale of 14 engines and two airplanes. The 30% margin realized on these sales is reflective of the unrealized value we have in our engine portfolio.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Trading is an important part of our business and keeps our portfolio relevant and provides capital to build our portfolio. Maintenance services revenue, which represents fleet management, engine and aircraft storage and repair services and revenues related to management of fixed base operator services increased by $1,300,000 to $8,000,000 in the 2025. Gross margins were negative 7% as we are in the build out stages of our aircraft line and base maintenance business. Our maintenance service offering, the lease opportunities for our business and enable a more efficient lease process through vertical integration. On the expense side of the equation, depreciation and amortization was up $5,400,000 in Q2 to 27,600,000.0 as compared to the prior year.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Growth in depreciation was primarily attributed to portfolio growth and new off lease assets going on initial lease, which starts their depreciation cycle through the P and L. To a lesser extent, this increase was related to the depreciation associated with shop visit investments, which start a slightly more accelerated depreciation schedule as shop visit investments are depreciated over a shorter time frame. Write down of equipment was $11,500,000 for the quarter, representing impairment on six engines, four of which were moved to held for sale. G and A was $50,400,000 in the second quarter, up $15,700,000 compared to $34,700,000 in the comparable period in 2024. Increases in the overall g and a spend were mainly related to a $15,000,000 increase to personnel expenses, of which $12,600,000 was due to share based compensation.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Of this $12600000.0.5300000.0 dollars was associated with the departure of our former general counsel and an acceleration in his share of vestings. 5,000,000 was related to our April 2025 grant, which was awarded under our prior LTEA program and linked to 2024 performance. For 2025, we have modified the LTEA plan following the significant stock price appreciation in 2024 and have granted awards in January 2025, which are subject to service and ongoing performance based metrics. And 2,200,000.0 of the increase was related to wage growth due to increased staffing associated with the growth of the business and $2,200,000 was due to increased legal fees. These cost increases were partially offset by the receipt of $6,300,000 of government grant proceeds associated with our staff program, which we were awarded in October 2024.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Technical expense, which consists of noncapitalized repairs, engine thrust rental fees, outsourced technical support services, sublease engine rental expense, engine storage and freight costs increased by $3,000,000 to $7,500,000 in the second quarter compared to $4,500,000 in the prior year period. This increase was primarily due to an increased level of engine repair activity. Net finance costs, which were $33,600,000 in the second quarter compared to $24,600,000 in the comparable period of twenty twenty four. The increase in costs was primarily related to an increase in indebtedness as total debt obligations increased from $1,950,000,000 at June 2024 to $2,800,000,000 at June 2025. A significant portion of the increase in total balance sheet debt was associated with the late q two twenty twenty five ABS capital raise, which will have a temporary effect on leverage as well as restricted cash until such time as the beneficial interest in our engines associated with this transaction are transferred to our new financing.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

In the second quarter, the company recognized $43,000,000 gain on the sale of our bridge end asset management consulting business to our joint venture, Willis Mitsui. This transaction allowed the company to recognize the substantial value created in our consulting business, which we purchased in 2016, build further substance in our JV partnership with Mitsui and free up capital to grow our core leasing business while still maintaining access to the consulting capabilities of the BAML business through our 50% ownership interest in our Willis Mitsui joint venture. Concurrent with this sale, we made an incremental $22,500,000 investment in our Willis Mitsui joint venture. The company also picked up $3,100,000 in ratable earnings from our 50% ownership interest in our Willis Mitsui and Casseck Willis joint ventures. EBT for the quarter was $74,300,000 up 28.3% from the comparable period in 2024.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Income tax expense was 13,900,000.0, an ATR of 18.7%, which was influenced by the favorable tax treatment of our gain on the family sale to Willis and Tissue. The company produced $59,000,000 of net income attributable to common shareholders, which factors in GAAP taxes and the cost of our preferred equity. Diluted weighted average income per share was $8.43 in the 2025. Net cash provided by operating activities was a 145,200,000.0 in the 2025 as compared to a 129,700,000.0 in the 2024. The increase was predominantly related to a large disparity in working capital as inventory went from a $40,700,000 use to an $8,900,000 source of cash, partially offset by a $22,000,000 decrease in payments on sales type leases and a 10,900,000.0 decrease in cash flows from changes in accounts payable and accrued expenses.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Cash flows from investing were negative $2,200,000 in the first half of the year. Contributing to this were $155,000,000 of equipment purchases and $17,000,000 of purchases of PP and E, offset by $142,000,000 of proceeds from the sale of equipment as well as $23,100,000 of net proceeds from our sale of the BAML business. On the financing and capital structure side of the business, the company completed six JOCO financings in April for $19,800,000 bringing total JOCO financings at quarter end to approximately $125,000,000 In June, the company accessed the ABS market and raised its eighth ABS financing, West eighty, raising $596,000,000 in aggregate principal amount of fixed rate notes. This transaction was a two tranche debt offering representing the largest ABS financing the company has done to date. The transaction was well oversubscribed during its marketing and priced the tight spreads the company has achieved to date, demonstrating the strong demand our business model has generated in the structured debt markets.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Subsequent to quarter end, we amended and extended our $500,000,000 warehouse facility to provide the company with more favorable asset advance rates, reduced borrowing costs, and extensions of the commitment period and final repayment date to 05/03/2027 and 05/03/2028, respectively. As a specialty finance company, Willis Lease regularly accesses the capital markets as we look to source competitively priced capital to continue to grow our balance sheet and P and L. In May, we paid our fourth consecutive regular quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share. Subsequent to quarter end, we declared our fifth consecutive regular quarterly dividend, which is expected to be paid on 08/21/2025 to stockholders of record at the close of business on 08/12/2025. We believe that our ability to pay a recurring dividend speaks to the health of the business and provides our shareholders with a moderate current cash yield on their investment while not degrading the strong cash flow characteristic and equity growth of the business, which supports our overall growth.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

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 2.96 times as compared to 3.48 times at year end 2024. The flexibility of our capital structure, our liquidity due to our $1,000,000,000 credit facility and $500,000,000 warehouse facility as well as our current leverage profile provides us the flexibility to quickly and opportunistically access the market as we look to continue to build our lease portfolio and provide the best and most creative solutions to our customers. With that, I will now open the call to questions. Operator?

Operator

Thank to allow your signal to reach your equipment. Once again, that is star one if you would like to ask a question. We'll now take a question from Hillary Takananda with Deutsche Bank.

Hillary Cacanando
Hillary Cacanando
Director - Equity Research at Deutsche Bank

Hi. Thank you so much for taking my questions. I was I was just curious, you know, with OEM production, you know, model starting to improve a little bit. Are you seeing any impact on these rates? You know, I think I think the lease rates on engines are still very strong, but I, you know, I've heard some investors express some concern, you know, about whether lease rates are peaking or when do you or when that or when lease rates are expected to peak kind of if you have a feel for that? Any thoughts?

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Hillary, this is Austin. Thanks for your question. So we've seen lease rates increase about 9% relative to the same period last year and about 2% to 4% over the prior quarter. So I think lease rates are stabilizing in some cases a little bit higher in some cases about the same. In terms of production, we're hoping that the OEMs are kind of starting to sort things out and are going to be starting to produce the aircraft with more consistency.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

And I think that's what we're seeing broadly. We don't expect to see any real negative pressure on lease rates because of that in the near term. But that's also why we've got about 54% of our portfolio in the next generation equipment. So as the pool of GTF and LEAP powered aircraft increases that increases our market to lease out those engines. And then also as we start to see the phase out of the current generation technology which we still think is a little ways off we're pretty well placed to exploit that with our programs like Constant Thrust that are really designed for aircraft transition.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

So in general, we think the lease rates are good and expected to be pretty strong for the foreseeable future.

Hillary Cacanando
Hillary Cacanando
Director - Equity Research at Deutsche Bank

Okay. So you're not really seeing that keep keeping as of yet. Okay. Sounds good. And then just a follow-up question.

Hillary Cacanando
Hillary Cacanando
Director - Equity Research at Deutsche Bank

You know, we've been hearing that some very young aircraft, you know, like a three twenty neos and a two twenty, you know, younger than 10 years old are now being parted out, you know, to use the engines upstairs. You know, which speaks to the to the demand for engines. So are you seeing that? And is that actually good for you guys, is that type of environment or or not?

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Yes. So we are seeing that, but it's a bit nuanced. So there are some aircraft that I believe the engines have been pulled off and the airframes are being parted out, but I think it's pretty limited. What we're seeing a little bit more of are airlines obtaining the at least or otherwise aircraft where they're pulling the engines off temporarily to support their own fleet. We're acquiring some aircraft underwriting them on the basis of the engine.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

So in general, I think it's a positive. I think it comes to the fact that there's so much demand for engines in the marketplace that people are doing whatever they can to obtain lift.

Hillary Cacanando
Hillary Cacanando
Director - Equity Research at Deutsche Bank

Great. Thank you. That's very helpful. Thank you very much.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

You bet. Thanks, Hillary.

Operator

We'll take our next question from Eric Gregg with Four Tree Island Advisory.

Eric Gregg
Founder & Principal at Four Tree Island Advisory LLC

Thanks, guys. Great quarter. Four quick questions here. First is, you said the end of the quarter utilization rate was 88.3%. What was the average unit quarter?

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Scott, do you want to take that?

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Yes. The utilization rate for the quarter was 87.2%. At the end of the quarter, that was quoted by Austin, the utilization rate was the 88%. Sorry, Eric, was your question what was the utilization rate average for the quarter or the end of the last quarter?

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

I want could you repeat your question? Looks like we looks like we dropped. It looks like we're dropped. If you can get back to operator.

Operator

Eric is in the queue. Okay. We can hear you now, Eric.

Eric Gregg
Founder & Principal at Four Tree Island Advisory LLC

Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah.

Eric Gregg
Founder & Principal at Four Tree Island Advisory LLC

I I was I think you said it was 88.3 at the end of the quarter. I just wanted to know if that was, you know, the high point and and if it's lower, that's great. I guess my other question to the I would have blocked out here Eric, I think I think Eric, not so Sorry, Eric.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Not to interrupt you. I think, you know, why the the the reason we quoted is, you know, we try to quote the average utilization in the periods as well as the end to just kind of speak to the trends. You know, over the last Over the last year, we've seen going back to when we picked up a lot of GTS in the fourth quarter, we had a higher off lease percentage.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

I think you kind of looked at the end of last year, we were in the high 70s. As we've gotten those assets on lease, we've seen our utilization go up. So we just wanted to highlight that the average utilization in the quarter was lower than the utilization at the end of the quarter and the business is trending well in that regard.

Eric Gregg
Founder & Principal at Four Tree Island Advisory LLC

Great. My other questions are these.

Eric Gregg
Founder & Principal at Four Tree Island Advisory LLC

What was the employee count at the end of the quarter? How is the bridge end sale going impact from operating income on a quarterly basis? And my final question is the quarter. And and is it revenues is all the cost of maintenance services is, you know, also inclusive of of your, you know, internal client as well as third party? So those are my remaining questions. Thanks.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Sure. So I'll I'll try to tick I'll try to through those and you were a little choppy there. So I'll try to get as many as possible.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Scott, you don't mind, me jump in on that.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

We lost some of your later questions. But in terms of employee counts, we're around four twenty. And I think one of your questions was asking for a little bit of color on the transaction between ourselves and the joint venture selling the consulting business. Is that correct?

Eric Gregg
Founder & Principal at Four Tree Island Advisory LLC

Yes.

Eric Gregg
Founder & Principal at Four Tree Island Advisory LLC

I was wondering how what's the ongoing revenue and operating income impact of selling that business?

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Okay. So it's the P and L from that business hasn't been particularly material to our own business. But I think the P and L impact to us now having that additional infusion of roughly 40,000,000 of equity is going to have a pretty positive impact when you take into account our ability to leverage it and buy profit making equipment over time.

Eric Gregg
Founder & Principal at Four Tree Island Advisory LLC

Great.

Eric Gregg
Founder & Principal at Four Tree Island Advisory LLC

And just to repeat, in case you didn't I was jumbled. The maintenance service revenues this quarter were less than the cost of maintenance services. I assume that the maintenance service revenues line item is a third party revenues. Is the cost of maintenance services third party plus internal client related costs? Or is is is it the case that you're losing money on, you know, third party maintenance services on a gross margin basis?

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Sure. So I'll answer part of the question and then from the accounting side I'll hand it over to Scott. So the margin the difference in the margin for the maintenance services business is really attributable to the additional labor that we picked up during the period and that's largely driven by the airframe business Wazel. I think I mentioned in my prepared remarks that we secured a contract with Jet two for two additional lines. And in order to secure that contract we had to show that we had the labor force in place that was capable of servicing their aircraft.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

So that's really a lot of it is the buildup of that labor to support that contract with Jet two. And Gus, if you want to touch on the other parts?

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Yes. No, I think you answered it often.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

I think that Eric, you're definitely seeing a little bit of the cost of the growth of that business in the early stages. So that's why you've seen the change in margin. But obviously you've seen also some growth in the top line there as well.

Eric Gregg
Founder & Principal at Four Tree Island Advisory LLC

Thank you very much. Great quarter.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Thanks, sir.

Operator

We'll now take our next question from Will Waller with M3F Inc.

Will Waller
Portfolio Manager at M3F, Inc

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. You mentioned the maintenance reserve revenue was $50,700,000 in the current quarter, and that was $50,200,000 of that, that was short term maintenance reserve revenue. I'm kind of curious, the long term maintenance revenue that you mentioned is only $500,000 If I look back at last quarter, that was 9,600,000.0. If I look back at year ago, the same quarter, it was 17,000,000.

Will Waller
Portfolio Manager at M3F, Inc

When I look at the maintenance reserve liability, that grew from last quarter being about a $104,400,000 up to $113,100,000 Can you kind of walk through what's going on with extensions of leases? And if there's an above normal number of extended leases and if that's affecting how that's accounted for and then eventually how that maintenance reserve liability, if that eventually some of that runs through the income statement and sort of the timing of that?

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Thanks, Will. Thanks for the question. I think you're the way you're thinking about the long term maintenance revenue relative to lease extensions and long term leases is generally correct. So for the benefit of other investors, long term maintenance reserve recognition generally occurs when we have an engine that comes off of long term lease. Now part of that is lumpy and part of that is due to extensions.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

I'd say we have seen a reasonable amount of extensions. But I think the bigger factor in the second quarter was more just to do with timing than anything else. We had some long term reserve come in a little bit later and some come in a little bit earlier. So I would be cautious to focus too much on lease extensions and more just the timing more than anything else. Scott, do you want to add to that?

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Yes. No, I think the only thing I would add is that if you look at the core short term recurring maintenance reserve revenue, you've seen that increase approaching 10%. And really, as you know, the long term piece is always associated with those engines coming off lease. So less engines with those conditions off lease, I think you noted the point that we've built in these reserves. So we're still obviously pulling dollars in on that front as well, not recognizing them yet through the P and L, but ultimately we will be.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

And we're very happy with the yields that are getting generated by the portfolio.

Will Waller
Portfolio Manager at M3F, Inc

Okay. Great. And then my question was probably kind of confusing, but you answered it exactly what I was basically what I was asking, I think you understood it. So thanks a lot for that. And then my last question is related to the sustainable fuel project.

Will Waller
Portfolio Manager at M3F, Inc

You had the expenses that were associated with some of the plans in the first quarter. It sounded like you got some of that grant revenue in the second quarter, and then I think there was a release that you got another grant that was awarded. But just kind of curious on how the timing of that will work and if that's reported on the income statement and where that would flow through if it does or if it has.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

Sure. So yes, correct. We had and as we said in our last call, we mentioned that the lion's share of the cost that we would incur and that you'd see in the P and L would be would happen in that first quarter of the year. And we did receive a grant. We were awarded the grant in October and we received the proceeds for that grant slightly in excess of $6,000,000 in the second quarter and we recognized that through the P and L in the quarter.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

The other grant that you're referring to similarly was awarded in this quarter is in dollars, it's a little north of $4,000,000 and that will be recognized in the P and L upon receipt. So we don't have a color for you now on the receipt, but we stand by what we said in the past that we've seen the lion's share of material costs on the SaaS side come through and those were predominantly in the first quarter. And just to add to that briefly, we're thrilled that the U. K. Government has decided to give us another grant.

Scott Flaherty
EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance

And it's really just a testament to the project and their confidence in our ability to execute.

Will Waller
Portfolio Manager at M3F, Inc

Great. Thank you very much.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Thank you, Will.

Operator

And it appears there are no further telephone questions at this time. I'd like to turn the conference back to our presenters for any additional or closing comments.

Austin Willis
CEO at Willis Lease Finance

Thank you all for joining us today. We're thrilled with another great quarter, and we look forward to talking to you next quarter. Bye bye.

Operator

And that does conclude today's conference. We thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Analysts
    • Austin Willis
      CEO at Willis Lease Finance
    • Scott Flaherty
      EVP & CFO at Willis Lease Finance
    • Hillary Cacanando
      Director - Equity Research at Deutsche Bank
    • Eric Gregg
      Founder & Principal at Four Tree Island Advisory LLC
    • Will Waller
      Portfolio Manager at M3F, Inc
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