2 July 2020

McCann FitzGerald advises on Five “Deals of the Year” at the Airfinance Journal Awards 2019

The five award winning deals on which the firm advised are:

• Bank Loan Deal of the Year: PK AirFinance $3.6bn Commercial Loan: The transaction involved Apollo acquiring the PK AirFinance aircraft lending platform and Athene acquiring PK AirFinance’s existing portfolio of loans.

• Equity Deal of the Year: Titan Aviation $400m Aviation Fund: The transaction represented the first all-freighter joint venture. It was also the largest cargo warehouse facility. It was also the first sidecar vehicle for Titan Aviation and Atlas Air Worldwide and will lift Titan’s ranking to become the largest freighter lessor.

• Lessor Unsecured Bond Deal of the Year: Nordic Aviation Capital $786m Private Placement: This dual-tranche private placement, which was another step to migrate to unsecured financing, was the largest US private placement by an aircraft leasing company at the time;

• ABS Equity Deal of the Year: Horizon 2019-2 $541m ABS for 18-Aircraft Horizon 2019-2 was the first tradable equity certificates offered to passive equity investors without an anchor investor;

• Overall Deal of the Year: Apollo Global Management/Athene $3.5bn M&A: The transaction involved Apollo Global Management acquiring the PK AirFinance aircraft lending platform and Athene Holding acquiring PK AirFinance’s existing portfolio of loans.