Aldus Aviation (Aldus) announced yesterday the pricing of $540 million asset backed secured Term Loans (Loans) for ATLAS 2014-1 Limited and ATLAS 2014-1 LLC (together ATLAS). The net proceeds of the Issue will be used by ATLAS, a newly established special purpose vehicle, to fund the acquisition of 30 Embraer aircraft from Aldus and the secondary market.
The issuance comprises $436.2 million of 4.875% Class A Loans, $76.2 million of 6.875% Class B Loans both priced at par and $27.7 million of 6.150% Class C Loans priced at 94.2. All tranches have been rated by Kroll with respectively A for Class A, BBB for Class B, and BB for Class C.
Aldus will acquire the Class E Note and will act as Servicer to ATLAS with ECC, Embraer’s leasing company, acting as backup servicer. The collateral portfolio has a weighted average age of 4.7 years with a weighted average remaining lease term of approximately 6.5 years. The portfolio comprises solely young and in-production Embraer E-Jets and has a considerable geographical diversity with exposure to 10 different countries and 10 different lessees.
Aldus Chief Executive Officer, Steve Gorman said: “We are extremely delighted to announce this landmark transaction which constitutes a successful first step by Aldus into the capital markets. It reflects Aldus’ strategy to develop a long term capital structure and to finance our growing business with diversified funding sources.”
Aldus Chairman, Phil Bolger commented: “Over the past decade, Aldus has demonstrated a growing and resilient business model focused exclusively on leasing E-Jets and we have established a long-term relationship with Embraer. We are looking forward to continuing and growing our partnership with Embraer to further increase the leading position of E-Jets in the 70-120 aircraft segment.”
John Slattery, Chief Commercial Officer at Embraer added: “This highly successful transaction is of considerable importance as it further brings capital markets investors into debt facilities supported by Embraer aircraft. We look forward to working with the Aldus team on many other successful initiatives.”
Goldman Sachs is the sole structuring agent, global coordinator and joint lead arranger. Deutsche Bank is joint lead arranger, acting as trustee and as initial senior credit facility provider.
Allen & Overy and Milbank provided legal counsel to Aldus and Clifford Chance advised Goldman Sachs.
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