Perilune Group and SHZ Aviation have sold nine Airbus A319s to Orix Aviation, FlightGlobal understands.
Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that the aircraft were transferred to Dublin-based Orix in November.
The 2013- and 2014-vintage aircraft, which are operated by American Airlines, were leased to the carrier while it was still in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Each aircraft is financed through a special-purpose company, with different limited-partnership investors, organised and managed by Perilune and SHZ. Orix will assume the structured financing provided by 11 international financial institutions.
"Our investors took considerable risk investing in an American Airlines-related transaction," states Ziki Slav of SHZ, which specialises in distressed and special-situation investments in the aviation sector. "By exiting now, they managed to take full advantage of the tremendous improvement in American's credit profile and realise substantial gains on their positions."
Skyworks Leasing advised the sellers and arranged the transfer of the funding, while Vedder Price and Clifford Chance represented the sellers.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
