Category: News

SKY Leasing Full Year 2022 Update

In 2022, SKY Leasing Leased, Purchased and Sold over 105 Aircraft

• Acquired 35 Aircraft, of which 87% are new technology narrowbody aircraft
• Executed sale-leaseback agreements or the lease placement for 26 aircraft
• Finalized sale purchase agreements for 8 aircraft subject to existing leases
• SKY established 13 new airline relationships throughout 2022 and expanded its global network of airlines 
• Completed the sale of Sky Fund I Irish Limited (36 aircraft) to Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) Limited
• Raised over $750 million of secured financing across two facilities with a group of eight leading transportation banks

San Francisco, CA –January 11, 2023- SKY Leasing (“SKY”) is pleased to announce its’ end of year 2022 results highlighted by a transaction volume in excess of $3.5 billion.

The transactions were originated with 14 airlines across all major regions including Europe, Latin America, and Asia, building on the strength of SKY’s global customer network. These acquisitions are in line with SKY’s investment strategy of building a fleet of new and next-generation aircraft on long-term lease with leading global airlines. “In 2022, we demonstrated the value of SKY’s investment management capabilities across purchasing, leasing, and aircraft sales. As airlines benefit from the passenger demand recovery, we are pleased to provide scaled fleet solutions for new technology aircraft” said Austin Wiley CEO of SKY Leasing.

SKY continues to find attractive investment opportunities for Sky Fund V increasing the closed and committed fleet to 48 aircraft with a weighted average age of 2.7 years and an average remaining lease term of 9.2 years. “Our institutional partners appreciate our successful track record of investing in opportunities with downside protection and long-term stable cash flows. With the increase in market volatility, we have seen a significant increase in demand from investors looking for specialized offerings that are less correlated to the broader markets.” said Matthew Crawford, Executive Vice-President Capital Markets of SKY Leasing.

About SKY Leasing

SKY Leasing, LLC (“SKY Leasing”) is a premier aircraft leasing asset manager with offices in San Francisco, California, Dublin, Ireland, and Singapore. The company’s fund management business was founded in 2019, in partnership with M&G Investments. Since 2016, SKY Leasing has invested over $7 billion to acquire new and young mid-life aircraft. For more information about SKY Leasing, visit www.skyleasing.com

SAN FRANCISCO- June, 30, 2022– SKY Leasing (“SKY”), a full-service aircraft asset manager, announces it has completed the sale-leaseback of the first (10) A320neo family aircraft subject to long term lease with Latam. The transaction is a part of the airline’s fleet modernization plan with new fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly narrowbody Airbus aircraft.

“We are delighted to build our partnership with LATAM Airlines, on this first A320NEO delivery, a highly efficient aircraft with excellent range and fuel efficiency metrics.” said Travis Wiley, Senior Vice-President, SKY Leasing.

– ENDS –

If you require any further information, please contact: SKY Leasing

Anne Marie Scaramuzza Investor Relations

Tel: +1 415 655 5000

Email: info@skyleasing.com

Notes to editors

About SKY Leasing

SKY Leasing (“SKY”) is a premier aircraft leasing asset manager with offices in Dublin, Ireland and San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2019, in partnership with M&G Investments which acquired a stake in the business. As a full-service leasing platform, SKY leverages its experience, global network, industry insights and managerial talent to acquire and lease new and young mid-life aircraft. SKY’s corporate mission is to be a leading capital provider to airlines globally for sale and leaseback transactions. For more information about SKY Leasing, visit www.skyleasing.com.

San Francisco, CA – August 3, 2021 – SKY Leasing (“SKY”) is pleased to announce that Catherine Kearns has joined as General Counsel, based in SKY’s Dublin, Ireland office. Catherine has more than 25 years of aircraft leasing legal experience previously holding senior legal roles at BOC Aviation, SKY Aviation Leasing International, and ORIX Aviation.

Commenting on the hire, SKY’s Chief Executive Officer, Austin Wiley said “We are delighted to welcome Catherine back to SKY and have her as a part of our leadership team. Catherine’s exceptional talent and reputation enhances our platform execution capabilities for both our airline customers and investors”.

Also joining SKY Leasing is Valerie Tay, who has been appointed Managing Director, Asia. Valerie previously held banking positions with Citibank and HSH Nordbank, before joining Transportation Partners in 2012, where, as Chief Financial Officer, she built the lessor’s finance capability.

She will report to John Duffy, Chief Commercial Officer, who added “It’s great to have Valerie on board. She will bring a unique insight to our Asian growth plans, having looked at many deals through the lens of a banker, lessor and airline over a twenty-year period”.

About SKY Leasing

SKY Leasing (“SKY”) is a premier aircraft leasing asset manager with offices in Dublin, Ireland and San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2019, in partnership with M&G Investments which acquired a stake in the business and invested $300 million of equity in its first fund. As a fullservice leasing platform, SKY leverages its experience, global network, industry insights and managerial talent to acquire and lease new and young mid-life aircraft. SKY’s corporate mission is to be a leading capital provider to airlines globally for sale and leaseback transactions. For more information about SKY Leasing, visit www.skyleasing.com.

For more information, please contact info@skyleasing.com.

1H-2021 Operating Highlights

• Executed and delivered via sale-leaseback (3) A321NEO aircraft, (2) B737MAX9 aircraft and (4) ATR72-600 aircraft
• Executed LOI’s for the sale-leaseback of (5) A320NEO aircraft with scheduled deliveries in Q4 2021 and 2022
• Acquired (2) B737-800 aircraft subject to long-term lease with a Latin American carrier
• Closed $663M “SLAM” ABS transaction refinancing a 16 aircraft portfolio
• Closed $600M revolving warehouse facility with a five-bank syndicate & closed $134M of additional bilateral financings

San Francisco, CA – July 21, 2021 – SKY Leasing (“SKY”)is pleased to announce its’ first half 2021 results highlighted by a closed and committed aircraft pipeline valued at $655M.

The transactions were originated with airlines across Europe, Latin America, and Asia, building on the strength of SKY’s global customer network. These acquisitions are in line with SKY’s investment strategy of building a fleet of new and next-generation aircraft on long-term lease with leading global airlines.

“Since January 2020 we have originated $1.5B of new and young mid-life aircraft transactions. The portfolio is one of the youngest in the industry with a weighted average age of 1.5 years and an average remaining lease term 10.9 years. Our relentless focus on providing capital and fleet solutions to our global network of airlines has enabled us to accelerate our growth plans as airlines focus on the cost efficiencies that next generation aircraft provide” said Austin Wiley, Chief Executive officer of SKY Leasing.

SKY continues to build on its strong support in the banking and capital markets raising over $1.4B in debt capital in the first half of 2021 to fund our committed aircraft pipeline. SKY’s global lender base now includes more than 40 bank and institutional clients. Our focus on new and nextgeneration aircraft led to the successful refinancing of a 16 aircraft portfolio in the SLAM 2021-1 issuance, which achieved the lowest all-in yield ever for an aircraft ABS transaction.

“The best inclass pricing we receive from the banking and capital markets community is a validation of both our strategy and the quality of the SKY platform” said Matthew Crawford, Executive VicePresident Capital Markets of SKY Leasing.

About SKY Leasing

SKY Leasing (“SKY”) is a premier aircraft leasing asset manager with offices in Dublin, Ireland and San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2019, in partnership with M&G Investments which acquired a stake in the business and invested $300 million of equity in its first fund. As a fullservice leasing platform, SKY leverages its experience, global network, industry insights and managerial talent to acquire and lease new and young mid-life aircraft. SKY’s corporate mission is to be a leading capital provider to airlines globally for sale and leaseback transactions. For more information about SKY Leasing, visit www.skyleasing.com.

For more information, please contact info@skyleasing.com.

San Francisco – June 3, 2021 – SKY Leasing (“SKY”), a full-service aircraft leasing company, announced the closing of an issuance of $663 million of secured notes (the “Notes”) by SLAM 2021-1 Limited and SLAM 2021-1 LLC (“SLAM”). SLAM expects to use a portion of the proceeds of the Notes to acquire a portfolio of 16 Airbus and Boeing aircraft valued at approximately $885 million. The portfolio features the youngest average aircraft age for an aircraft ABS ever issued with an average age of 1.6 years and a weighted average lease term of 11.1 years. The portfolio includes the highest concentration of next generation narrowbody aircraft for an aircraft ABS with 10 A321NEO aircraft in the portfolio. SKY will act as servicer for SLAM’s aircraft portfolio.

The offering consisted of two series of Notes: $592.4 million Series A Notes with an interest rate of 2.434% and $70.7 million of Series B Notes with an interest rate of 3.422%. The Series A Notes have an initial loan-to-value (“LTV”) of 67.0% and were rated A1 by Moody’s Investor Services (“Moody’s”) and A by Kroll Bond Rating Agency (“KBRA”) and the Series B Notes have an initial LTV of 75.0% and were rated Baa1 by Moody’s and BBB by KBRA. Both the Series A Notes and Series B Notes have an initial expected maturity of 7.0 years and an initial expected weighted average life of 5.5 years based on the pricing case cash flow model. An affiliate of SKY acquired the E Notes of SLAM.

“We are pleased that the SLAM portfolio attracted a diverse, global group of investors to achieve the lowest all-in yield ever for an aircraft ABS,” said Matthew Crawford, Head of Capital Markets at SKY. “The success of this transaction validates SKY’s investment approach, which enables our platform to continue to provide efficient capital solutions to our airline customers and delivering high quality portfolios to our capital partners.”

SKY expects to refinance its existing warehouse debt financing facility with proceeds from the SLAM transaction.

MUFG and Citi acted as joint lead structuring agents and joint lead bookrunners, Morgan Stanley acted as joint lead bookrunner and Natixis, Societe Generale, BofA Securities and Deutsche Bank acted as joint bookrunners on the transaction. Natixis is the liquidity facility provider for the transaction. Vedder Price P.C. acted as legal counsel to SKY and Clifford Chance US LLP acted as legal counsel to the initial purchasers.

The Notes have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and were offered only to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act and outside the United States to non-U.S. persons in accordance with Regulation S under the Securities Act. This press release is not an offer of securities for sale in the United States. The Notes may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration under the Securities Act or pursuant to an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws.

This press release shall not constitute an offer of the Notes to the public in any member state of the European Economic Area.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the Notes, nor will there be any sale of the Notes in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

About SKY Leasing

SKY Leasing (“SKY”) is a leading aircraft leasing asset manager with offices in Dublin, Ireland and San Francisco, California. It was founded in 2019, in partnership with M&G Investments which acquired a stake in the business and invested $300 million of equity in its first fund. As a full-service leasing platform, SKY leverages its experience, global network, industry insights and managerial talent to acquire and lease new and young mid-life aircraft. SKY’s corporate mission is to be a leading capital provider to airlines globally for sale and leaseback transactions.

For more information about SKY Leasing, visit www.skyleasing.com.

For more information, please contact info@skyleasing.com.