AerCap Deal With AIG Builds Jet-Leasing Rival to GE

AerCap Holdings NV agreed to buy International Lease Finance Corp. from American International Group Inc. for $5 billion to create an aircraft lessor rivaling General Electric Co.’s Gecas unit for size.

AerCap will pay U.S. insurer AIG $3 billion in cash and the balance in stock, taking control of a 40-year-old business that helped create a leasing industry now accounting for 40 percent of the $100 billion spent globally on new airliners each year.