(BN) Berkshire to Make Loans for Luxury Jet Customers (Update1)

Now we will see an explosion of continental jet demand appearing...

http://www.netjets.com/NetJets_Programs/NetJets_Direct_Financing.asp

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Berkshire to Make Loans for Luxury Jet Customers (Update1)
2010-11-17 16:28:04.126 GMT


    (Updates with NetJets CEO comment in the fourth paragraph.)

By Andrew Frye
    Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway
Inc. will make loans to clients of its luxury air-travel unit
after sales declined during the financial crisis.
    The financing minimum is $100,000 and the loans are only
available to commercial clients, according to a statement today
from Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire's NetJets business.
    Buffett has called the unit Berkshire's "major problem"
for 2009 as cash-strapped clients gave up their accounts and
NetJets slid into losses. NetJets Chief Executive Officer David
Sokol, who took over in August of last year, has fired pilots
and sold aircraft to cope with the slump in demand.
    "Owners are able to structure a payment solution that
exactly meets their needs," Sokol said in the statement.
    Credit approval for the loans may take "as little as a few
days," NetJets said. The loans are fixed rate and have terms of
as long as five years, the company said.

--Editor: Dan Kraut

To contact the reporter on this story:
Andrew Frye in New York at +1-212-617-1869 or
afrye@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Dan Kraut at +1-212-617-2432 or dkraut2@bloomberg.net