TAM is Awarded for Quality in Securing Financing for Its Aircraft Fleet

SAO PAULO, May 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TAM (NYSE: TAM; Bovespa: TAMM4) was given a double award by Airfinance Journal last week in recognition of high quality in the financing operations that it took part in last year for the aircraft in its fleet. The Latin America Deal of the Year 2008 award was presented to the company based on two agreements reached with different international financial institutions. In addition to this, the fact that TAM was able to purchase 32 new aircraft in 2008 with the support of structured financing led Airfinance Journal to recognize the company's team responsible for the negotiations, led by TAM's director of International Contracts, Jose Zaidan Maluf, as the world's best by giving it the Aircraft Finance Team of the Year 2008 award.

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Of the two agreements that warranted the Latin America Deal of the Year 2008, one was set up by Banco Santander and ING and named Spanish Operating Lease (SOL), which was completed in July of 2008, just before the global financial crisis, for two Airbus aircraft.

The second agreement was structured with a financial guarantee from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) which financed four Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and included the participation of four international financial institutions: Calyon, Natixis, Pefco (Private Export Funding Corporation) and Societe Generale.

Airfinance Journal, one of the most important business publications produced by the commercial aviation industry, highlighted three unique factors involved in this deal: It was the first delivery of large Boeing aircraft in Brazil, it was the first B777-300ER to be operated by a Latin American airline and the first financing agreement achieved with an Ex-Im Bank guarantee for this type of structured operation.

The awards were given last week to TAM's vice president of Finance, Management and IT, Libano Miranda Barroso, and to the company's director of International Contracts, Jose Zaidan Maluf, at a ceremony held in the Rockefeller Center's Rainbow Room, in New York. TAM was recognized in London last December by the British magazine Jane's Transport with the Aircraft Leasing Deal of the Year award, in recognition of the innovative and favorable conditions that it achieved to finance the four B777 aircraft through financial leasing.

"We receive this double award as an international recognition of TAM's solid financial situation and of the excellence in relationships that our team fosters with customers and suppliers, driven by Passion for Aviation and by the Serving Spirit," stated Libano Barroso.