England - London • Finance

2

Transport finance and leasing

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

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Drawing upon a 'wealth of knowledge and experience in negotiating aircraft financing documentation', Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP provides 'solutions-driven and efficient' advice to lenders and borrowers seeking or providing finance within the aviation sector. Leasing underpins a sizeable proportion of the workflow, whether it be the context of portfolio sales, acquisitions and financings, as well as on the establishment or unwinding of leasing platforms. Debra Erni  has 'a high level of knowledge' in this space and is particularly appreciated for her work in the Japanese market, where she adds value by dint of her fluent language skills and appreciation of cultural differences. 'Vastly experienced and super responsive' team head Graham Tyler also handles some lessor work, in addition to advice to airlines and export credit agencies, ensuring that he has an excellent perspective of the market. 'Practical and solutions-focused' counsel Chris Knight  is also a key member of the team, and is adept at handling cross-border aircraft and engine finance transactions for an eclectic mix of clients. Clients also benefit from the team's ability to leverage resources from the firm's US and Asia offices.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • 'The team has a wealth of knowledge and experience in negotiating aircraft financing documentation.'
  • 'We enjoy working with them because we can rely on getting updated market trends.'
  • 'Solutions-driven and efficient documentation process management.'
  • 'Graham Tyler is vastly experienced and super responsive and can be relied on to give an interesting unique perspective we may not have have considered.' 
  • 'Debra Erni has a high level of knowledge and expertise on aircraft leasing matters.'
  • 'Chris Knight is diligent, practical and solutions-focused.'
  • 'Chris Knight is vastly experienced in aircraft financing and is comfortable navigating and explaining his way around the suite of documentation required to finance aircraft.'

Key clients

  • Air Lease Corporation
  • Bank of Tokyo Lease
  • Deutsche Bank
  • Dubai Aerospace Enterprise
  • Dubai Islamic Bank
  • Elliott Management
  • Emirates Airlines
  • Ethiopian Airlines
  • Export Development Canada
  • FIDERA
  • ICBC Leasing
  • HSBC
  • Jackson Square Aviation
  • Minsheng Financial Leasing
  • Mitsubishi Corporation
  • Novus Aviation Capital
  • Oaktree Capital Management
  • Qatar Airways
  • Macquarie AirFinance
  • SMBC Aero Engine Lease
  • Stratos
  • Tamweel Aviation Funding
  • TrueNoord Regional Aircraft Leasing
  • World Star Aviation

Work highlights

  • Advised Oaktree Capital and its servicer World Star Aviation on the post-acquisition refinancing of a 36 cargo aircraft portfolio.
  • Advised DAE as borrower in relation to $2bn worth of facilities, including financing to support DAE’s acquisition of 36 aircraft from Sky Leasing.
  • Advised TrueNoord Regional Aircraft Leasing in a 10 aircraft portfolio acquisition from Nordic Aviation Capital.

Lawyers

Rising stars

Chris Knight

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

Chris is a senior associate in the London office of Pillsbury’s Asset Finance Group. His practice focuses on acting for banks, lessors, airlines and export credit agencies on a wide range of high-value, cross-border aircraft and engine finance transactions. Chris’ extensive transactional experience spans sale and leasebacks, finance and operating leases, OEM purchase agreements, novations, PDP financings, engine maintenance and support agreements, loan/mortgage transactions and ECA supported deals. In 2016, Chris undertook a six-month secondment at Emirates in Dubai advising on a range of delivery, redelivery and ad hoc matters.

Leading individuals

Graham Tyler

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP

Mr Tyler is the leader of the law firm’s London office finance practice and is a member of the transportation finance team. He is a recognised expert in aircraft finance and regularly advises clients that include airlines, financial institutions and lessors on the procurement of new and used aircraft and engines and the cross-border leasing and financing of those aircraft and engines, utilising a variety of structures including operating leases, finance leases, export credit supported transactions, Islamic finance and tax-based and structured finance products.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Graham Tyler

Other key lawyers

Debra Erni, Antony Single, Rakhi Savjani, Chris Knight

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