WASHINGTON –On Thursday, the Board of Directors for the Export-Import Bank of the United States’ (EXIM) unanimously approved two transactions totaling more than $688 million. These transactions will create thousands of American jobs and bolster U.S. support of exports to the United Kingdom and Ethiopia.
The Board’s first transaction guarantees $281 million from the Private Export Funding Corporation (PEFCO) to Ethiopian Airlines Group. These monies will finance the export of several Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. It will also support 1,600 American jobs across Washington, Indiana, and North Carolina. The first of this fleet were delivered in September 2022 and the remaining aircrafts are expected to be delivered by the end of March 2023.
“Engineers and scientists in the United States created the aircraft. This transaction affirms EXIM’s support of the American aviation industry and supply chain and will help shape our competitiveness around the world, while creating hundreds of jobs,” said EXIM President and Chair Reta Jo Lewis. “Today we are ensuring that 1,600 hardworking Americans will be able to keep and maintain their good-paying jobs. This transaction also advances one of our founding charter mandates to expand and improve commercial ties across the Horn of Africa, where we must do all that, we can to remain competitive and influential.”
In a separate action, the Board approved long-term, secured corporate financing for more than $407 million to the United Kingdom’s Viasat Technologies Ltd. with the guarantee of its U.S. parent company, Viasat, Inc. Viasat is a well-established provider of high-speed broadband services, advanced satellite and wireless networks and secure networking products, and services to government, commercial and satellite markets. EXIM financing will be utilized to fund rocket launches supplied by Space Exploration Technologies of Hawthorne, CA, and United Launch Alliance of Centennial, CO as well as U.S.-brokered launch and initial in-orbit insurance services to support the deployment of two satellites. An estimated 2,200 U.S. jobs in California and Colorado are expected to be created or supported with this transaction.
Once fully deployed, the Viasat constellation will provide global coverage, dramatically improving connectivity in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa. This authorization will support the goals of President Biden’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) as well as EXIM’s China and Transformational Exports Program.
“EXIM has been strongly committed and vocal regarding its support of PGII since its launch,” said Chair Lewis. “This transaction demonstrates our commitment to Biden-Harris Administration priorities while ensuring our U.S. exporters are competitive in the global landscape.”
In the final transaction of the day, the Board unanimously voted to approve a key reinsurance/risk-sharing program that will help diversify risk in financing projects at EXIM. The risk-sharing arrangements on a transaction-by-transaction basis with private sector insurance and non-insurance companies as part of its reinsurance/risk sharing program.
The Reinsurance Program, launched in 2018 because of EXIM’s 2015 reauthorization, is an innovative program that, at the time, was the largest public-private risk sharing arrangement for a U.S. government credit agency. The program represented the maximum allowable coverage permitted under EXIM’s charter and fulfilled its 2015 congressional reauthorization mandate to engage in risk-sharing with the private sector to minimize EXIM’s liability for potential future losses.
ABOUT EXIM:
The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) is the nation’s official export credit agency with the mission of supporting American jobs by facilitating U.S. exports. To advance American competitiveness and assist U.S. businesses as they compete for global sales, EXIM offers financing including export credit insurance, working capital guarantees, loan guarantees, and direct loans. As an independent federal agency, EXIM contributes to U.S. economic growth by supporting tens of thousands of jobs in exporting businesses and their supply chains across the United States. Since 1992, EXIM has generated more than $9 billion for the U.S. Treasury for repayment of overall U.S. debt. Learn more at www.exim.gov.
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