Our cross-border asset finance and leasing practice focuses on the financing of a wide range of aviation assets We deliver these services through a variety of complex structures, including off-balance sheet operating leases, leveraged leases, export credit finance and asset backed securitisations. Our skills are applied to optimise the tax benefits of financing structures and to obtain, where possible, a beneficial off-balance sheet or tax treatment ranging across the entire spectrum of transactions in this area.

Our services

Our asset finance and leasing expertise is developed not only through transactional work but also through product development sessions with banks and other financial intermediaries. Our expertise encompasses domestic and cross-border structures and extends to project finance, securitisations, debt repackagings and cross-border issues of securities having the characteristics of both debt and equity and PFI.

The following are some of the areas in which we regularly advise:

Leveraged leasing

Following the demise of most crossborder leveraged lease structures in recent years, few tax structured products remain available; we advise on the structuring and documenting of French leveraged leases and we have substantial experience of domestic and cross-border tax lease transactions involving aircraft and rolling stock.

Japanese leases

We document and advise on limited recourse structured Japanese operating leases which remain a significant source of cross-border aviation financing.

Private finance initiative

We are actively involved in ground breaking financing structures for the largest military procurement programmes in various European jurisdictions.

Securitisation

In a fast changing industry where large industrial operators tend to raise finance more and more from the capital markets, as opposed to traditional loan based facilities, we use our combined expertise in asset finance and capital markets to design innovative structures involving the issuance of asset backed securities.

Export Credit Agencies

We have been involved in a wide range of export credit financing,

Operating leases

We represent various major operating lessors from the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific in connection with the leasing of commercial aircraft and aircraft engines.

Vendor programs

We regularly advise major financing companies in relation to pan-European vendor programs involving the financing or re-financing of large inventories and trade receivables for a wide variety of small to medium ticket equipment.

For any wet lease finance or dry lease finance – please call +44 1453 872666

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