International Restructuring: Solving an Aircraft Finance Puzzle – “Flying is Easy; Landing is Hard”

This episode, “Flying is Easy; Landing is Hard,” featuring partners Allan Marks, James Cameron and Karen McMaster, explores how the global pandemic and economic slowdown have radically altered the financial landscape for airlines, aircraft manufacturers and leasing companies around the world and discusses how Nordic Aviation Capital (“NAC”) – a leading aircraft lessor worth over $8 billion – navigated the sudden collapse in air traffic in 2020 with help from its creditors and an Irish court.

About the speakers:

James Cameron is a partner in Milbank’s London office, co-head of the firm’s London Transportation and Space Group and a top-ranked practitioner with extensive experience acting on a variety of asset leasing and financing transactions involving aircraft, ships, oil rigs, rolling stock and other movable equipment. He has advised clients on the full range of structures including M&A, capital markets transactions, EETC, securitisation, finance and operating leasing, structured tax-based financings, export-credit, restructurings, leasing company acquisitions, asset portfolio sales and purchases, joint ventures and Islamic financings.

Karen McMaster is a partner in the firm’s Financial Restructuring Group. She assists buy side and distressed investors structure, negotiate and implement investments in distressed, stressed or special situation credits.  She also has experience in all aspects of debt restructuring and reorganisation, from initial contingency planning and options analysis to the implementation and management of complex workouts.

Allan Marks is one of the world's leading project finance lawyers, with special expertise in the power and renewable energy, transportation and airports, oil and gas, water, and telecommunications sectors. He advises developers, investors, lenders, and underwriters around the world in the development and financing of complex infrastructure projects, as well as related acquisitions, restructurings and capital markets transactions. He has provided strategic guidance to corporate boards and senior executives with respect to risk management and cybersecurity compliance in the energy and digital infrastructure areas. Mr. Marks also serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley at both the Law School and the Haas School of Business.