Milbank advised the Blue Sky Aviation strategy of EnTrust Global, a leading alternative asset management firm, and funds managed by Strategic Value Partners and its affiliates, a global investment firm, on the acquisition of DVB Bank Group’s Aviation Investment and Asset Management business, a leading global aviation services company. The business will be acquired through Deucalion Aviation Limited, a newly incorporated UK joint venture company between EnTrust and SVPGlobal. EnTrust and SVPGlobal’s support is expected to further enhance the business’s growth internationally and allow it to explore complementary opportunities arising from the current aviation industry dislocation.
The Aviation Investment and Asset Management business is a global aviation management platform that provides turnkey solutions for financial investors looking to deploy capital in aircraft assets, through origination, structuring, execution, fund management and a full-fledged range of servicing activities. Forty-five employees manage approximately 160 aircraft on lease to more than 80 airlines globally, representing approximately $5 billion in total asset value. The business will continue to be led jointly by Jon Skirrow and Stephan Sayre.
Milbank advised EnTrust and SVPGlobal on all corporate/M&A, tax and aviation law aspects of the transaction. The transaction is expected to close during the first half of 2021.
The Milbank Team was led by partners Sebastian Heim (Corporate/M&A, Munich) and Drew Fine (Transportation and Space, New York) and included the partners Thomas Kleinheisterkamp (Tax), Alexander Rinne (Antitrust, both Munich), Thomas Ingenhoven (Finance, Frankfurt), Freyda Mechlowicz (Transportation and Space, New York), Joel Harrison (Technology, London), Lisa O’Neill (Corporate/M&A) and Russell Jacobs (Tax, both London).
The team was supported by special counsels Michael Pujol (Munich) and Andrea Eggenstein (Frankfurt, both Corporate/M&A) as well as Alison Beal (Technology, London) and the associates Fritz Schuchmann, Pascal Haerdtner, Alexandra Schaefer, Maximilian Pechtl, Markus von Lutterotti, Mahmood Kawany (all Munich), Gemma Cullen, Sarah Ullathorne (all Corporate/M&A, London), Bradley Pearson, Matt Slider, Joel Brand, Coral O’Connor, Glenn Kim, Victoria Mansoor (all Transportation and Space), Alex Wang (Corporate/M&A, all New York), Katherine Soanes, Natasha Neale (both Technology, London), Odilo Wallner, Gerrit Merkel, Sebastian Trompler (all Finance, Frankfurt), Nils Bremer (Antitrust, Munich), Martin Brennan (Alternative Investment) and Cosmos Fung (Tax, both London).
