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 Actâ€), 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 [email protected].
