Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Chorus First Quarter 2024 Financial Results conference call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you need assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Tuesday, May 7th, 2024. I would now like to turn the conference over to Tyrone Cotie, VP, Treasurer, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Joanna. Hello, and thank you for joining us today for our first quarter 2024 conference call and audio webcast. With me today from Chorus are Colin Copp, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Gary Osborne, Chief Financial Officer. We will begin today's call with a brief summary of the results, followed by questions from the analyst community. As there may be some forward-looking discussion during the call, I ask that you refer to the caution regarding forward-looking statements and information found in the MD&A. This pertains specifically to the results and operations of Chorus Aviation, Inc. For the three months ended March 31st, 2024, as well as the outlook section and other sections of our MD&A, where such statements appear.
In addition, some of the following discussion involves non-GAAP financial measures, including references to adjusted net income, adjusted EBT, adjusted EBITDA, leverage ratio, and free cash flow. Please refer to our MD&A for a discussion related to the use of such non-GAAP measures. I'll now turn the call over to Colin Copp.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Tyrone. This quarter was marked by solid progress on our plan and key metrics, leading to meaningful improvements on our deleveraging goals and generation of strong cash flows. Before I get into the first quarter highlights, I want to acknowledge that we are not satisfied where our share price is trading today, and we recognize that the transition of the leasing business to an asset-light model has been slower than we had planned. This is a top priority for us, and we're very focused on improving value for our shareholders. We're working hard to optimize returns while accelerating and monetizing assets in our Falko Leasing business. I am happy to report that since the last quarter, the leasing business has continued to strengthen.
Over the past few months, we've seen improvements in both lease renewal rates on key assets and an increase in asset sale opportunities. We remain very confident in the regional leasing space and in our ability to optimize the value of the over 100 owned or majority-owned assets under management by Falko. At the same time, we've been active with our NCIB and have canceled over 5% of our shares since its launch in 2022, including over 900,000 shares this last quarter, and we will continue with our NCIB. Now, turning back to the first quarter results. Throughout the first quarter, we performed well and met our financial targets. As I mentioned earlier, this led to solid outcomes on our debt reduction goals and generation of cash flows from operations and asset sales. Gary will speak to those details in his update.
This continued progress of strengthening our balance sheet, reducing our debt servicing costs, and generating solid free cash flows will position us for future growth and underscores our absolute determination to drive shareholder value. Throughout the quarter, all of our businesses rolled up their sleeves to contribute to these results. Jazz generated solid earnings and cash flows under its long-term capacity purchase agreement with Air Canada. Throughout the quarter, Jazz saw pilot recruitment strengthen with the intake for its pilot classes full several months in advance. Randolph and his team at Jazz have demonstrated exceptional operational performance in Q1, with notable year-over-year improvements in almost all metrics. Falko executed well on trading activity, with Jeremy and the team concluding 23 aircraft transactions, including the sale of three aircraft and two engines in support of our asset- light strategy.
They executed on a sale and purchase agreement with Nordic Aviation Capital to acquire a portfolio of 24 Embraer aircraft on behalf of Fund II. Voyageur continued to execute on the growth plan, with Cory and team pursuing several new business development opportunities, making strong progress in key areas of specialty flying, MRO, and USM. Additionally, we're very pleased to announce that Voyageur purchased a King Air 350 in the first quarter and leased it into the Canadian Department of National Defence. This represents an expansion of Voyageur's existing in-service support contract for the Manned Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance program, MAISR. Given the strong performance of our operating business, today, I'm pleased to report that we are increasing our 2024 guidance for consolidated adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, as well as the majority of guidance for RAL, including net proceeds from asset sales.
In conclusion, I'd like to reiterate the fundamentals of our business are strong and that we will continue to improve them. Chorus has the right elements and the right blend of capabilities to be an industry leader within the regional aviation space and to deliver great value to our shareholders. The Chorus team represents the best talent our industry has to offer, and I want to thank each one of them for their focus and contributions throughout the quarter. Finally, I want to express my thanks to our investors for their ongoing support as I reiterate our commitment to value creation and to building a resilient industry-leading business.... Thank you. I'll now pass it over to Gary to take you through the financials.
Thank you, Colin, and good morning. Our first quarter results are in line with our targets. As Colin mentioned, we are increasing our guidance for the remainder of 2024, primarily, primarily reflecting our strengthening asset sales pipeline. As we look at our results for Q1 2024, our adjusted EBITDA came in at CAD 109.1 million, with our Jazz and Voyageur businesses combining to deliver adjusted EBITDA of CAD 62.4 million and Falko delivering CAD 55 million. Our free cash flow was CAD 102.1 million during the quarter, primarily derived from strong operating cash flows and net proceeds of CAD 38 million, primarily related to the sale of two A220s.
Our leverage ratio was 3.4x at the end of the quarter, down from 3.6x at December 31st, 2023, and down a full turn from 4.4x at the end of December 31st, 2022. This has been accomplished largely through long-term debt reduction, including approximately CAD 594 million of long-term debt repayments in the past 18 months. We also allocated capital to retire about 10.5 million shares since Q4 2022, for approximately CAD 33 million. As mentioned last quarter, we are pleased to continue positive change, or we, we see continuing positive changes in the airline credit environment. During the quarter, we signed an agreement with Azul, which restructured their aircraft lease arrangements to provide for the recovery of all contracted amounts owed.
Looking at the remainder of 2024, we have increased our consolidated guidance as follows: increased adjusted EBITDA guidance by CAD 10 million to CAD 360 million-CAD 410 million, increased free cash flow guidance by CAD 10 million to CAD 300 million-CAD 350 million, increased expected net proceeds from asset sales guidance by CAD 30 million to CAD 60 million-CAD 80 million. Segment guidance for both RAS and RAL has been updated to support these changes. With respect to Fund III, we continue to anticipate closing it by the end of 2024. Finally, we remain active in our NCIB, purchasing 938,000 shares in the quarter. At our current market price, we intend to continue to be active in our NCIB throughout the balance of the year.
Colin noted, with continued improvement in our key metrics and an increase in our financial targets, we are demonstrating progress, both in strengthening our balance sheet and putting us on a path to value creation. We are now ready to take your questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. Should you have a question, please press the star followed by the one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a three-tone prompt acknowledging your request. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. First question comes from James McGarragle from RBC. Please go ahead.
Hey, thanks for taking my question, and, congrats on a good quarter.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Yeah. So I just wanted to get a little bit more color on what's driving the acceleration in asset sales. You mentioned, you know, that the market's picking up in terms of rates, aircraft values. Can you just provide a little bit more color there and, you know, how you see the market evolving during the remainder of the year?
Yeah, I can give you my perspective, James, and Gary may jump in with his as well, but look, what we've seen in the last little while is a lot more interest in trading activity and most specifically on the sales side at reasonable values. So we're, you know, we're pretty excited about that. These type of things take a long time, and, you know, they're never super quick. So you know, there's kind of always a bit of a tail to this stuff, but we've certainly seen a good improvement the last several months as we kind of come out of the, I guess, come out of the last year there, where it was a little bit sluggish.
So, you know, we're pretty encouraged by all that, and we're encouraged by some of the lease rates we're seeing on key assets, improving. So generally seeing, you know, an incline of an improvement in all aspects.
Yeah, and I think Colin hit it. We see a good pipeline moving ahead. We've got a lot of interest in asset sales. We have a trading desk over at Falko that is very active in the market, so we're feeling very confident in that. And back to Colin's point, the lease rates that we've been renewing aircraft at have been better, slightly better than planned.
I appreciate the call there, and I wanted to ask another question on the Brookfield and the Castlelake acquisition. You know, have you you spoken to Brookfield at all on that? Just trying to get any color on the impact that might have on your relationship with them and any potential impact on Fund III.
Well, I can talk just very high level to the fact that, you know, look, Brookfield's very close to us. You know, this did not come as a surprise to us, and there's absolutely no impact to us in any way. So we're not, you know, we're not in any way affected by this. This is a transaction that has really nothing to do on the with us on the aviation side. And Brookfield, as you know, is on our board, fully supportive. They, you know, they talked to us about this. You know, so there's absolutely no issues there at all. It's not really tied in any way to anything for us...
appreciate the caller, and I'll turn the line over. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from Kevin Chiang at CIBC. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions here. Maybe if I just look at it simplistically, I know, you know, a lot of moving parts here, and as you, you know, sell assets and transition, you know, to your asset light model, and you're still, you know, getting Fund III ready to go here. There's a little bit of noise in earnings. But I guess if I look at it simplistically, you know, if I look at the midpoint of your full year guide, and I back out what you did in Q1, it implies a decent sequential decline in the run rate EBITDA from, like, CAD 109 million to CAD 92 million. Maybe just...
If you could just maybe provide some color as to the cadence of EBITDA through the year. You know, is there... Do you think you're kind of tracking towards the upper end of that range, just given how you performed in Q1, and there's some conservatism in your guidance? Are there, other puts and takes, puts and takes we should be thinking about, just given the asset sales and the impact that has on the P&L?
Yeah, Kevin, it's Gary here. I think on the EBITDA, it's gonna, you know, it's gonna be fairly straight through the balance of the year. We do have some lease renewals, but there's not a lot of those coming up, but there are a few. You know, as far as the range goes, you know, we have the range there. Where we're tracking, we're tracking within it, obviously. But you know, it, it's gonna be a pretty steady year, we would hope. And you know, on the Falko side, the renewals are coming in at or slightly better than planned. So we're comfortable with where we're at on the guidance.
But as you renew aircraft, they do come down a bit in the revenue, as we talked about on the last call, and, you know, that's reflective in the ranges we gave you.
Okay. And then just in terms of some of the commentary around increased transactions, and it sounds like lease rates are coming a little bit better for the aircraft that you traffic in, which is primarily regional, just regional jets. Just wondering, you know, just given some of the issues in the broader narrow-body space, you know, whether it's the 737 or some of the engine issues with the A321, is that driving some of the increased activity you're seeing in the regional jet market? Just, it's taking longer for airlines to maybe replace their fleet or routes that airlines thought they would high-grade, maybe to a larger aircraft.
You know, they're, they're now looking at maintaining, using a regional jet, just given some of the issues in the narrow-body space. Just wondering if you're seeing any of that play out, given some of the activity you saw in the first quarter here.
Hi, Kevin. Yeah, it's Colin. Yeah, I think you've probably seen some impact from that. There's no question about that. Yeah, you know, there's that space is tight, and they do have several issues there, so there's probably some residual impact. But we're also seeing good renewals, you know, with existing operators on aircraft as well, which, as Gary said, you know, we're seeing good improved lease rates, let's put it that way. So I think it's probably a combination. Certainly, but, you know, there's obviously gonna be some impact from the fact that they're tight on narrow-body, sure.
Okay. And maybe just last one for me. Sounds like the pilot situation or cadet situation is gone a little bit better here.
Yeah.
I guess how much of this might be due to Lynx shutting down and maybe that creating supply or maybe a slowdown on the demand side is maybe helping rebalance the pilot shortage issue? Just any color there would be helpful.
I think in the U.S., the main lines have seen, you know, kind of a bit of a surplus. I wouldn't call it a surplus, but certainly some extra pilots sitting there.
Mm-hmm.
On the mainline side due to the recent changes in the industry. So that's gonna take some of the pressure off the regionals across everywhere, right? So we are seeing, as a result of several of those things, we're seeing good improvements on the pilot side. We're getting better, you know, higher-time candidates. Our classes are all full, you know, three months in advance. So there is absolutely no issues with us from a hiring perspective. You know, we've got lots of, lots of throughput, and it's just a matter now of starting to regrow and get things back to a little bit larger size than we were this last year.
Perfect. Thank you for taking my questions this morning.
You bet. Thanks, Kevin.
Thank you. The next question comes from Hillary Cacanando at Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for taking my question. You mentioned some business, new business development opportunity on the Voyageur side, you know, with MRO. I was wondering if you could just, you know, provide a little more color there. You know, given, given the huge demand for MRO and, and engine, I guess maintenance work, these days, I was wondering if you have any plans to kind of, you know, expand the Voyageur, side of the business even more. But, any, any additional color would be appreciated.
Sure. Hi, Hillary, it's Colin. You know, the Voyageur book of business, I think we've talked about a little bit, but, you know, they basically have a growth plan that we built into our, our business plan going forward, and they've been hitting that. They've been successfully hitting that the last year, this year. They're very much on track for, for hitting some decent growth year- over- year again. You know, the areas of growth that they've seen this last little while have really been those clear core areas we focused them on as they exited, as we came out of COVID or the pandemic period, and that's really on the USM side.... and on the maintenance, and in-service support side. So they've had some growth with MAISR.
As we said, they've added another aircraft there, which was pretty exciting for us. That was quite meaningful. They've had a lot of maintenance growth, specialty maintenance type stuff that they've been working on new projects. So we're pretty encouraged by them and where they're headed. And we will, as we move forward, think about how do we continue to push that growth and can we supercharge it with you know small investments of any kind. So you know we're excited for them for sure. They're doing well, tracking well, and you know I fully anticipate that they will continue to produce year-over-year growth for the next several years.
Got it. Thank you. And then just one follow-up, you know, Falko purchase of, you know, portfolio of Embraer aircraft, you know, from NAC, for Fund II. Yeah, I was just wondering if you can kind of, if you're seeing a lot of opportunity for additional portfolio acquisition this year, and just kind of like the competitive landscape with NAC selling off, their aircraft. Are you seeing any new players coming into the regional space, or are you seeing more lessors, you know, getting out of the regional space? You know, just kind of what you're seeing there in terms of competitive landscape.
Hi, Hillary, it's Gary here. I think, you know, there's certainly opportunities to transact out there. I think, you know, the aircraft that Falko picked up for Fund II kind of demonstrate that. So, you know, there's certainly activity out there. As far as the aircraft leasing space, I think, you know, Nordic has, you know, had its plans, and I think it's well known, where they're focused. So, you know, they haven't really been that active in the market, except for selling. And as far as the landscape goes, it's been fairly stable, generally speaking. So, we haven't really seen any real dramatic changes, or significant changes within it, so it's pretty stable.
Got it. Great. Thank you so much.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Cameron Doerksen at National Bank Financial. Please go ahead.
Yes, thanks. Good morning. Just a question on, I guess, the Fund III. You know, it sounds like you're still feeling confident about getting something closed by the end of the year here. Just given, you know, what you sort of described earlier as, I guess, a more positive environment as far as lease rate renewals and things like that, and more trading activity, has the, I guess, the nature of the conversations with potential investors in Fund III changed? Is it things getting more serious? Just any update on what you're seeing out there.
Yeah, I can give you my views, Cameron. You know, I don't think anything has really significantly changed from the investors that we've been talking to. You know, we're still the same key people that we've been communicating and working with. And you know, it's like anything, we remain pretty confident that we will get Fund III there with a bit of time. Unfortunately, you know, it's been a little bit slower than we had originally planned, given, you know, kind of the environment we've been in. But, we're seeing not only in the leasing side, but in all sides, really an improving trend there, which in the long run, kind of puts focus on, at some point, we're gonna get this done here fairly soon. So it's, you know, it's still in the hopper, still moving ahead.
Not a lot of changes really with who we're talking to.
Okay. No, that's helpful. And maybe just second question, just trying to understand, I guess, the accounts receivable line item and the potential, you know, cash being generated from that. I mean, you've got this Azul restructuring. Maybe you can just go into a little bit of detail on how you can or how the, I guess, the timing of how that turns into cash for you ultimately, and then as well as the other, I guess, you know, cash collections from accounts receivable. Just trying to understand what the potential positive cash impact might be in 2024 and heading into 2025.
No, that's a good question, Cam. We have the receivables have certain time frames associated with them, obviously. So if you look at Azul, there's been a restructuring there that they've gone through. And what you're seeing is essentially we've got two elements. One is a, you know, a longer-term note, one's a shorter-term piece, and basically we've got, you know, that'll get collected over the next two to three years, conceptually, maybe a bit longer than that, I think, but the timing of one of the instruments. So it'll come in gradually over the course of time. Our other receivables have different dates associated with them, some shorter term, some longer term.
So, you know, there's certainly some upside as we see it in the cash going forward as we collect those receivables, but the timing is, you know, it's, it takes a little bit to mature through the statements.
Okay. All right, that, that was all for me. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from Tim James at TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much. Good morning. Just wanna turn back to the lease rate environment for a moment in RAL. So in the first quarter, the decrease in lease revenue was primarily due to lower market rates on re-leased aircraft. So am I correct that that is a reflection of simply older aircraft, as obviously they've aged from the original contract term, and because they're older now, you're securing or contracting at lower lease rates, and that's not a function of the market per se?
Hmm. Yeah. Tim, it's Gary here. So two things happened in the quarter. One is, we did have some asset sales, so you had the two A220s and another aircraft. So those did reflect in the revenue during the quarter. But back to your point, as they renew in the second lease, they come down in value, but yet they're still producing. So that's what you'll start to see moving ahead in there. But that...
... When you look at the quarter, those are two, fairly significant items, bringing out the Airbus A220s and, and the Air Austral aircraft.
Okay. And then you commented earlier that lease rates are perking up a little stronger than expected. Does this mean you're actually seeing them increase on a year-over-year basis, or are they just not as weak or appear stronger than expected? And again, I'm thinking now, I wanna think in sort of an apples to apples, so a given aircraft and, you know, at a given age, I just wanna think, common comparison.
Yeah. So what we're looking at there, Tim, is when we look at our aircraft lease renewals, the ones that are coming up, they're coming in slightly better than where we planned, so which is good news from that. So we've seen a bit of an uptick in some of the lease rates. It's modest, but it's certainly a little bit better.
Do you feel, then for, you know, pick any given aircraft, is the lease rate that can be secured today higher than the lease rate that could be secured 12 months ago?
I'd say generally, yes. The market has been improving. I think you can look at a lot of the industry publications, Ishka and others. The rates have been coming up in general. We're starting to see that in some of the renewals, and yeah, I mean, I think generally speaking, the market's getting better. I think there was a question earlier about the tightness in the market. There's no question that the manufacturing effects at Airbus, sorry, at Boeing and others on the narrow -body side, has had an impact in the sense that airlines out there are trying to secure lift. They're trying to secure lift with aircraft that are coming up for lease renewals, including the E190s and others. So you're seeing some demand there, and that's having a bit of an impact on the lease rates.
A lot of the demand is being tightened up by the fact that these aircraft that were sitting as we came out of the pandemic are being picked up, right? So they are getting picked up and bought up. So the surpluses are drying up, especially if you start to look at the Q400, and we're seeing some improvements there for sure. There's no question about that. If you look at, like, aircraft same time frame renewals. So it's really as we've come out of this last year or so, we're really seeing things start to tighten slowly.
Okay, thank you. And then my last question, just, the, there was a significant improvement or step up in the, in the revenue build that was collected in the first quarter versus Q4. Was there a particular driver of that? I think it went up 10 percentage points, if I'm not mistaken, or roughly that from Q4 to Q1. Is that just sort of the normal recovery and the other factors that we've been talking about, or was there a particular driver of, of that, improvement?
The particular driver was signing the Azul agreement in February. That's been flipped over, and that's where most of that difference was.
Perfect. Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from Konark Gupta at Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Thanks, and good morning, and I am adding my congratulations for the quarter. Let me ask you on the RAL segment first. You know, the gain on asset sales, do you expect that line item to continue producing revenue for the remaining three quarters? It was CAD 3 million in Q1.
Yeah, it's Gary here. You know, I'm not predicting that at this stage. You know, those things do come and go, but right now we're predicting zero, basically break even, and hopefully we'll see something from it, but...
It's not in the plan, basically, right?
No, no, it isn't. And if you look at the disclosure in the outlook section, Konark, we, we said, you know, when you go back to last year, we didn't put anything in that particular line, so, it's upside.
Okay. Makes sense. Thank you. And then, the asset management fee line item, it seems a little bit volatile quarter-t o- quarter. So Q1 obviously was down from last year's Q1 a little bit, and then also down slightly from Q4 last year. Well, let's see, like, how should we model it before Fund III comes up?
Yeah, I would model it very similar for the rest of the quarters to what you see in Q1. What you're seeing there, Konark, is really, I think the majority of it relates to Fund II. It's now moving to capital deployed versus committed capital. It's now at the five-year mark. That's when it tips over, and that's what you're seeing. Just a simple function of how the math works.
I see. Okay, perfect. And then Fund III will obviously have an impact on this line item as you go forward.
That's right. Then once Fund III gets you know, solved and we get that across the line, then you'll see the fees come in for that.
Right. Makes sense. Thank you. Okay, and then, moving on to the CPA side, so can you remind us, why in your outlook for 2025 and 2026, the leasing revenue under CPA is going down in 2026 versus 2025? However, the number of aircraft under lease is same as, I think, 39.
So it's Gary here again. So in 2026, we have a group of 12 aircraft that are extended under the CPA with different lease rates starting in 2026. That's what you're seeing. So there's a tranche of 12 Q400s, and that's what you're seeing the step down for.
I see. Okay, and I think you probably noted before, historically, that, you know, even with these new lease rates or decline in lease rates, these, the ROIC on these things are still staying similar or better, maybe because, you know, they are, you're paying down debt.
Yeah, so those aircraft have no debt on them.
Right. Okay, makes sense. Thanks. Last one for me before I turn over. On the debt side, I think you have some CAD 400+ million of debt coming due in the next 12 months or so. Any sense on how you plan to repay? Like, you have some cash generation that's pretty good here, solid, obviously, but is there any refinancing opportunity you see as well?
Yeah. I think the biggest piece within there, if you look at it, Konark, is really the Series A debentures that come due at the end of the year. They're current, and that's what you're picking up. So we have a CAD 50 million facility with the Bank of Nova Scotia that will enable us to pay CAD 50 million of the CAD 86 million, and then the remainder will pay out of cash by the end of the year. So those... That's the big piece that you're seeing within that current portion. The rest of it is generally amortizing debt.
Makes sense. Perfect. Thanks so much, Gary. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question comes from Betty Yang at Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
Hi, this is Betty on the call for Matt Lee. Just in terms of the aircraft that are coming out of the CPA in 2025, what would be the plan for those? Are they expected to be moved into a Falko fund or leased to other customer at the parent level? Just trying to get an understanding of the expectation around them. Thanks.
Yeah, it's Gary here. Right now we're working through the expectations around those. They could be sold, they could be re-leased. We could move them into you know, some other type of activity. We're still working through that. It's about a year and a half out. That's when you start to work on it. But conceptually, we'll, we'll do something with the asset. Yeah.
Thank you. Other question I have is on the guidance. Just wanted to consider the EBITDA and free cash flow guidance raise in unison. It sounds like you're looking at selling more aircraft in the air, but also perhaps showing higher EBITDA. Can you walk through how that works?
So when we sell the aircraft, generally speaking, you would reduce your revenue or your EBITDA moving ahead, but you get the free cash flow after proceeds. So that's what you're seeing, reflected. One is, you know, our revenues or the EBITDA is coming in a bit stronger than we expected. And secondly, we're expecting CAD 60 million-CAD 80 million in net proceeds, going through the free cash flow line this year versus what we had published earlier. So those are the two factors that are making their way through.
Awesome. Thank you very much.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. As a reminder, should you have any questions, please press star one. Next question comes from David Ocampo at Cormark Securities. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Just a couple follow-up questions. The first one is on Kevin's line of questioning about the cadence of profitability for 2024. But I did want to focus a little bit more on the EPS line, since there is a bunch of moving parts there. How should we expect that is a sequential step down as we move through the years? Or does the debt reduction from lower interest payments offset the decline in EBITDA?
So as you go through the course of the year, I think we're, you know, as I said earlier, once you take out the one-timers and that, we're pretty flat. I think that's probably how you should look at it, generally speaking, David, is pretty flat through the rest of the year.
I'm sorry, that's flat versus the Q1?
Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Similar, similar range.
Okay. When we think about the improvement in lease rates on the renewals that you guys are seeing, are you guys thinking about that as, you know, levels consistent with hitting your IRR targets? I think it was a mid, low teens type return that you guys are targeting.
Yeah. I think everything's been, you know, as we expected. I mean, the rates have gone up on the leases, so we're seeing some improvements there. You know, if you look at the funds, and in particular those two pieces, Fund I was a pre-COVID fund, so it's a bit different. It's good... It's more of a small return in the IRR side, as we've talked about before. But Fund II right now is still hitting its return targets. I'd say generally speaking, everything's lining up for these lease renewals as expected.
Yeah, perfect. And then last one for me. I take a look at Fund I. There's still around, I think, CAD 375 million of aircraft on the books, and the Fund's 10-year target date is 2025. So should we expect all these aircraft to be sold by 2025, or is there an ability for the Fund to be extended beyond 2025?
So the fund has the option for two one-year extensions, so that's possible depending on where it's at. We're still targeting to wind it up in 2025. The other side, too, is there are E Notes within the ABS structure or the Fund I structure, which are basically the equity instruments, and those are an opportunity to sell too. So there's a couple different ways. You can sell aircraft, and you can also sell the E Notes. That's another way to do it.
Does extending fund one have any impact on your ability to fund, close fund three?
No. No, they're independent.
Okay. That's, that's all the questions I have. Thank you.
Thank you. We have no further questions. I will turn the call back over for closing comments.
Thank you, Joanna, and thank you all for taking part in today's call. Have a good day.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference for today. We thank you for participating, and we ask that you please disconnect your lines.