L1 Treasury and Airborne Capital have launched AltitudeOne Aviation with plans to acquire a portfolio of leased in-production narrow body and wide body commercial aircraft.
L1 Treasury and Airborne Capital have committed equity capital of approximately USD250 million to AltitudeOne Aviation, which will be supplemented with bank financing. Airborne Capital will be the asset manager and lease servicer for AltitudeOne Aviation.
L1 Treasury manages the liquidity and financial investments of LetterOne, an international investment business with net assets in excess of USD25 billion. L1 Treasury combines a portfolio of liquid fixed income securities with investments in the financial markets, both direct and via hedge funds, along with long term higher yielding investments in real estate and other real and financial assets and direct loans.
Airborne Capital was launched in November 2017 with a strong industry-experienced management team, and with substantial backing from FEXCO Group, Ireland’s largest privately owned financial services company, and Natixis Investment Managers. The company has aggressive plans to grow the business to have aircraft asset under management of over USD5 billion within the first five years of set-up.
The commercial aviation industry is predicted to double the size of its fleet in the next 20 years on the back of growing passenger demand (4.7 per cent per annum until 2036). This growth will require significant funding from traditional and non-traditional sources and AltitudeOne Aviation will be a part of this funding solution.
Nitin Bhandari, Head of Direct Investments for L1 Treasury, says: “We are delighted to be working with the Airborne Capital team on this important investment and we look forward to playing an increasing role in the aviation funding markets. With the financial support and expertise that we can provide combined with the industry expertise of the Airborne Capital team, we believe that this business can grow rapidly to play a significant role in the market segments it is targeting.”
Ramki Sundaram, CEO of Airborne Capital, says: “We are very excited to launch this venture together with L1 Treasury. The team at Airborne Capital has rich experience in setting up and managing innovative investment and fund platforms for investors. This latest initiative fits perfectly within our strategy of providing a bridge between sources of capital and businesses requiring aviation financing.”
