AWAS closes $360m Senior Secured Term Loan Facility

Dublin based aircraft lessor, AWAS, announced today that it has closed a $360m 6-year Senior Secured Term Loan to help add resources to fund planned growth. The transaction was rated BBB- by S&P and Ba2 by Moody’s.

Proceeds from this Term Loan were used to refinance all nine aircraft funded by AWAS June 2011 $500m Warehouse Facility, arranged by JPMorgan, restoring full capacity for the remaining draw period until December 2013. In addition, the Term Loan will finance four new aircraft that will deliver in the later part of the year.

“This Term Loan gives AWAS incremental flexibility to fund aircraft acquisitions" said Simon Glass Chief Financial Officer, AWAS. “Our approach has been to proactively add resources so financing is available to us before we need it. With new borrowing capacity from our JPM Warehouse and the $120m PDP facility recently closed, as well as significant liquidity provided by our supportive shareholders, we will be able to meet a significant portion of our next year’s Capex.”

Frederic Mireur, Head of Corporate Finance AWAS commented, “We would like to recognise and thank our Joint-lead Arrangers Goldman Sachs, RBC Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley, as well as our Co-Managers Wells Fargo (Collateral Agent) and CACIB (Administrative Agent) for their contributions. This new Term Loan was over-subscribed by 63 institutional investors, including 39 that were new to AWAS. Our senior management and our shareholders have been extremely supportive of our finance team’s strategy to expand and widen our sources of funding, so that even in challenged financing markets, we can be poised to support our platform’s planned growth.”