Walter Song

Walter Song is counsel in Hughes Hubbard’s Washington, DC, office and is a member of the firm’s Corporate and Equipment Finance Group, with a focus on commercial aircraft finance.  Walter represents operating lessors, borrowers, lenders, initial purchasers, arrangers, export credit agencies, private equity investors, and airlines in connection with financing transactions in the U.S. and around the globe.  He has experience in a wide array of structured equipment financings, including securitizations, syndicated credit facilities, warehouse facilities, sale-leaseback transactions and restructurings.

In addition to his practice, Walter serves on the firm’s Diversity Committee.

• Representation of Hawaiian Airlines Inc. in connection with a $262 million offering of enhanced equipment trust certificates (EETC) secured by eight Airbus aircraft.
• Representation of BNP Paribas Securities Corp. in connection with a $189 million aircraft asset-backed securitization (ABS) for Vx Capital Partners, a cargo aircraft management and leasing firm.
• Representation of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, DekaBank, Deutsche Girozentrale Standard Chartered Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. in connection with a $620.9 million senior loan financing for Delta Air Lines Inc.
• Representation of Bank of America as facility agent, structuring agent and joint lead arranger in connection with a $300 million aircraft warehouse facility for a new joint venture leasing vehicle established by Elliot Management and SkyWorks Leasing, an aircraft management services company.
• Representation of Citigroup in connection with a $911 million aircraft asset-backed securitization (ABS) by Castlelake, an investment firm specializing in aircraft.
• Representation of Wells Fargo Securities LLC as security trustee, trustee and operating bank in connection with a $585 million asset-backed securitization (ABS) for a joint venture between World Star Aviation and Oaktree Capital Management.
• Representation of Wells Fargo Securities LLC as sole structuring agent and joint bookrunner in connection with a $768 million asset-backed securitization for Sapphire Aviation Finance I, to be serviced by international aircraft leasing firm Avolon.
• Representation of a syndicate of lenders, including BNP Paribas, Citigroup Global Markets and Credit Suisse, as joint lead structuring agents and joint mandated lead arrangers in connection with a $475 million secured financing for Peregrine Aviation Limited, a joint venture between AerCap Holdings, an aircraft leasing company, and NCB Capital.
• Representation of Wells Fargo Bank N.A. as security trustee and operating bank in connection with METAL 2017-1, the debut $605.5 million asset backed securitization (ABS) for Dublin aircraft leasing company, Aergo Capital, to finance the purchase of 26 aircraft.
• Representation of Air Lease Corporation ("ALC") and the issuers in connection with a $344.7 million offering that launched ALC's Thunderbolt platform.
• Represented Wells Fargo Securities LLC as arranger and Wells Fargo Bank N.A. as agent and lender in connection with a $500 million secured loan to a special-purpose subsidiary of Avolon Aerospace Leasing Limited, an international aircraft leasing company based in Ireland.
• Representation of Wells Fargo Bank N.A. as trustee in connection with the first all-turboprop asset-backed securitization (ABS) for Ireland-based Elix Aviation Capital.  Prop 2017-1 is a $411 million ABS comprised of three classes of loans.
• Representation of Stratos L.P. and AerGen Aviation Finance Limited in a $324.7 million aircraft lease securitization for Harbour Aircraft Investments Limited 2016-1.  Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs acted as joint lead arrangers and initial lenders.  DVB acted as liquidity provider.
• Representation of Waypoint Leasing (Ireland) Limited in connection with a $55 million revolving credit facility to finance the acquisition of Airbus and Finmeccanica helicopters.
• Representation of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. as trustee, operating bank and security trustee in a $510 million aircraft lease securitization for Apollo Aviation Securitization Equity Trust 2016-1.  Goldman Sachs & Co., Deutsche Bank Securities, DVB Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities acted as initial purchasers and DVB Bank SE acted as liquidity provider.
• Representation of a group of lenders  identified by Burnham Sterling & Co., a provider of financial advisory and capital-raising services to the transportation industry, in connection with approximately $450 million in loans to Delta Air Lines Inc.
• Representation of Stratos L.P. in implementing a $300 million warehouse facility for the purpose of financing or refinancing the acquisition of Airbus or Boeing narrow-body passenger aircraft by AerGen Aviation Finance Limited.