Speaker 04.04.24
04.04
ABA Aircraft Finance Subcommittee Spring Meeting 2024
Hyatt Regency Orlando
9801 International Drive
Orlando, FL 32819
Service
Powered by highly rated commercial and business aviation finance lawyers in the U.S., Europe and Asia, Pillsbury’s Aviation Finance team has earned a reputation over six decades as being among the world’s best.
Pillsbury’s Aviation Finance team serves as a trusted adviser to the most established names in aviation as well as emerging players around the world, including manufacturers, airlines, lessors, financial institutions, corporations, individuals and other investors. Clients and counterparties respect us for our in-depth substantive knowledge, commercial awareness, user-friendly service and ability to power the efficient execution of transactions. Over the last five years alone, we have helped a diverse range of market participants get or keep more than 1,600 commercial and business aircraft flying, reflecting an aggregate asset value of more than $75 billion.
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Secured Financing and Operating Leasing
We are current on all types of aviation finance debt products and leasing structures, and also known for deploying our own intellectual capital in helping to engineer the state-of-the-art in this regard. Our team represents some of the most active international participants in the financing of aviation assets, including major banks, leasing companies, airlines, investors, traders, underwriters and manufacturers. We regularly represent lenders and airlines in negotiating secured credit facilities and act for lessors, airlines and equity participants in establishing operating and finance lease structures. Our lawyers have in-depth knowledge of how practical issues, such as maintenance and insurance or delivery and return conditions, impact lessors, lessees and financiers.
ECA and Other Credit-Insured Financings
Pillsbury has extensive experience in representing airlines and lenders in aircraft financings in over 40 countries, supported by European ECAs, U.S. Ex-Im Bank and AFIC. We have acted for Export Development Canada on numerous aircraft financings. We have represented multiple airline clients on recent AFIC-supported transactions across a variety of distinct structures and deal teams. We have also worked on over 40 transactions involving the issuance of Ex-Im Bank-supported bonds in the capital markets as well as with other export credit agencies and government-sponsored programs involving Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Korea Ex-Im Bank, China Ex-Im Bank and BNDES. Pillsbury has repeatedly been voted Export Credit Agency Law Firm of the Year and Best Trade Finance Law firm in North America by Trade Finance magazine and is at the forefront of innovative export credit.
Capital Markets Financing
Our lawyers have been involved in capital market securitizations of portfolios of aircraft and aircraft engines on operating leases since the very first of its kind in the early 1990s, and continue to lead this market today. We also act as general counsel for several special-purpose securitization vehicles, handling liquidation, corporate, securities law, litigation and tax issues. We have successfully concluded a number of consent solicitations to public noteholders for covenant relief and the orderly liquidation of aging aircraft securitizations.
Aircraft Acquisitions and Sales
We have advised airlines, lessors, corporations and individuals on tens of billions of dollars’ worth of new aircraft and engine purchases, and have also stewarded them through countless secondary markets trades, including large portfolio sales and acquisitions. Our team’s in-depth understanding of aviation asset holding structures and financing techniques, including tax-driven structures, enables us to identify and evaluate legal and business risks associated with asset transfers around the world.
Restructuring and Insolvency
Working with the firm’s Insolvency & Restructuring lawyers, we have represented lenders, lessors or debt trustees in every major U.S. airline bankruptcy filing this century and in the bankruptcies of several non-U.S. carriers. We represent clients on complex cross-border liquidations and sales, and have conducted more than 50 aircraft foreclosures in recent years. Our lawyers understand the process of foreclosing upon — and managing and remarketing — assets in coordination with technical, insurance and appraisal professionals.
Enforcement
In tandem with our significant work executing and delivering commercial aviation transactions and advising on restructurings and insolvencies, members of our team are also known as a long-range-capable force to be reckoned with when it comes to the prosecution and defense of related enforcement actions. In particular, Pillsbury is renowned for its thought leadership in the area of aircraft repossession. The jurisdictional and other situational awareness of our lawyers can often enable desired results to be achieved swiftly and discreetly.
Flight Support
Our aviation finance lawyers are known for their ability to collaborate effectively across disciplines, making multifunctional airline and lessor operational “flight support” possible. The firm’s ranks include many respected lawyers with significant aviation industry experience who can handle tax, insurance, employment, regulatory, sanctions, outsourcing and dispute matters.
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