Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) assigns preliminary ratings to three classes of Notes (the “Notes”) issued by Castlelake Aircraft Structured Trust 2018-1.

Proceeds from the sale of the Notes will be used to purchase a fleet of 36 aircraft that are initially leased to 18 lessees located in 15 countries with an initial total value of approximately $1,091.3 million.

This transaction represents the fifth securitization for Castlelake, L.P. (“Castlelake” or the “Company”). Castlelake was founded in 2005 with a focus on mid-life and end-of-life aviation assets and has recently started investing in younger mid-life aircraft. In total, the Company has over $12.9 billion in assets under management, of which more than $3.8 billion has been deployed within the aviation sector. Castlelake has a team of 38 individuals focused on aviation finance with an owned or managed fleet consisting of over 470 aircraft.

The transaction benefits from sufficient credit enhancement and liquidity, as well as a dynamic structure that accelerates principal payments on the Loans in the event of weak performance.

KBRA analyzed the transaction using the Global Aviation ABS Rating Methodology published on November 28, 2017.

For complete details on the analysis, please see KBRA’s pre-sale report, Castlelake Aircraft Structured Trust 2018-1, which was published today at www.kbra.com.

The preliminary ratings are based on information known to KBRA at the time of this publication. Information received subsequent to this release could result in the assignment of final ratings that differ from the preliminary ratings.

Screen-Shot-2018-06-01-at-22.09.28