Firm Advises on Airfinance Journal's 2018 ‘Deal of the Year’

June 21, 2019 — Hughes Hubbard served as legal advisor in a transaction named a “Deal of the Year” by Airfinance Journal, the aviation industry’s leading publication.

HHR advised on a matter selected as 2018’s “Overall Capital Markets Deal of the Year.” The firm has also been recognized in the previous six years for its role in 11 other transactions named “Deal of the Year.”

The prestigious awards recognize “a selection of the best financings of last year by both region and financing structure.” This year’s winners were selected by a judging panel of senior aviation finance executives and revealed at an awards ceremony at the Metropolitan Club in New York on May 2.

In the transaction, Hughes Hubbard represented aircraft leasing company Air Lease Corporation in a $555 million aircraft asset-backed securitization (ABS) that launched Air Lease’s Thunderbolt II platform.

The transaction, which closed last August, introduced the first 144A/Reg S aircraft portfolio shares to the market in a broadly distributed offering process where both the equity and debt securities were marketed and issued at the same time.

Steve Chung led the HHR team, which also included Terry Sanders, Andy Braiterman, Andrew Fowler, Jenny Graham, Jason Kaplan, Alan Kravitz, Justin Cohen, Alexander Friedman and Sean Murphy.