Shearwater Aero Capital is seeking up to $100 million to support its growth, following its strongest performance ever in 2018.
Shearwater has provided funding for over $100 million in aircraft, since its launch in late 2014, with loans and finance leases on 15 business aircraft around the world, including the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Around 90% of its funding has come from family offices.
Chris Miller, managing partner, Shearwater Aero Capital, said: “Shearwater’s transactions offer excellent fixed income performance with structures that have a time-tested record of mitigating downside risk. Our investors have shown increasing appetite for these investments’ characteristics. A growing desire from family offices and other investors to diversify their portfolios, and the attractive returns offered by the private debt market through opportunities such as ours, means more investors are looking to increase their exposure here.”
“With regards to family offices, they have as much as 10.7% of their assets invested in this asset class, compared to an average of around 4.7% for the average private debt investor. This difference can partly be explained by the fact that family offices are less tightly regulated and are not as concerned about secondary market liquidity as other investors.
“We are seeing growing interest from family offices from around the world that are looking to help fund our business, and with more of these institutions being launched, we expect this trend to continue.”