South Korea’s Meritz Securities Co. has made full payment of $685.9 million to U.S.-based aircraft leasing company Aviation Capital Group to add 24 airliners to its investment portfolio.

The latest investment will enable the Korean brokerage house to receive leasing fees on the aircrafts it has acquired, industry sources said Thursday.

For the latest acquisition, Meritz Securities directly invested $205.4 million and issued asset-backed securities with a coupon rate of 3.474-4.335 percent per year in the U.S. to pay for the remaining. It is planning to sell down most of its directly invested stakes to institutional investors in a fund while holding onto 10 percent stake.

The fund will guarantee an annual return of 7.5 percent for seven years and six months. The fund investors will not only receive principal but also share 70 percent of the proceeds from the aircraft sales when the fund matures.

This is not the first time Meritz Securities has invested in aircraft. It bought 20 units from GE Capital Aviation Services for $980 million in November 2016 and 18 units for $537 million in December last year.

By Park In-hye and Lee Ha-yeon

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