Japan's regional banks eye global airline debt biz

[TOKYO] Chugoku Bank Ltd, a lender based in an area of Japan known for its white peaches, wants to get into the global airline debt market after loans to local businesses fell for a fourth straight year.

"It's the same everywhere: loans aren't increasing and margins aren't good," Eriko Manabe, who works on the bank's overseas lending, said in an interview from Okayama in western Japan. "We're looking for our first aircraft financing deal."

Ms Manabe's bank isn't the only regional lender trying to get a piece of the aircraft financing market valued at US$104 billion last year after Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc's US$7.3 billion purchase of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc's aviation division in 2012.