Goshawk Aviation Limited (“Goshawk”) has completed its second issuance of unsecured notes to institutional investors in the US private placement market. The deal was launched as a USD 100 million senior notes issuance (“Notes”) however strong market demand resulted in a final issuance size of USD 566.5 million. This is understood to be the largest ever US Private Placement issuance by an aircraft lessor.

The average tenor was over 8.5 years, with 4 tranches split between 7, 8, 9 and 10 year tenors. The pricing of the transaction was completed late June with closing and funding in early July. Proceeds from the Notes will be used for aircraft acquisitions and general corporate purposes.

The joint lead agents were Citibank, Crédit Agricole CIB, Natixis and HSBC. BNP Paribas was a co-lead agent. O’Melveny & Myers LLP acted as Goshawk’s legal counsel while Greenberg Traurig Maher LLP acted as the investors’ legal counsel.

Anand Ramachandran, CFO of Goshawk, says “We are delighted to have completed our second issuance of notes in this market. We achieved all our objectives with this transaction. Several new as well as a number of existing institutional investors participated which is important as we aim to continue to increase the number of reliable sources of capital for our business. The transaction is attractively priced and the debt term of over 8.5 years closely matches the company’s average lease term.”

Goshawk was established in November 2013 as an aircraft leasing platform to focus on building an asset portfolio of young, new technology, in-production aircraft with a large and diversified asset-type and operator base. With support from its shareholders, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited and NWS Holdings Limited, the Goshawk portfolio has grown to 83 delivered aircraft since inception. Together with the planned aircraft in the pipeline, the total asset value of Goshawk is estimated at approximately USD5.6 billion.