January 17, 2014 – Chicago, IL |
RPK Capital Partners, a leader in aviation investment management, announced today, a new leasing opportunity with Monarch Airlines. Monarch Airlines has taken delivery of RPK Capital Partners Airbus A320-200 aircraft.
“Monarch Airlines is an established A320 operator and RPK is thrilled to lease them our A320-200, especially in this competitive marketplace”, said Karl Brunjes, Managing Director at RPK Capital Partners.
The aircraft operate under the English registration mark of G-ZBAP.
RPK Capital Partners purchased the aircraft in October of 2011 while on lease at the time with Thomson Airways Ltd. RPK Capital Partners subsequently leased the aircraft to Saga Airlines, a Turkish carrier based in Istanbul, in July of 2012. The aircraft was repositioned in August of 2013 back to England following an airline default.
April 4, 2014 – Chicago, IL |
RPK Capital Partners, a leader in aviation investment transactions, has issued both Class B and E Certificates against its American Airlines’ aircraft-secured loans.
In October of 2012 RPK lent American Airlines $268 million secured by 10 mid-life aircraft. The eight-year term secured loan proceeds were used by the airline to refinance existing debts and manage general operating costs. In August 2013 RPK issued Class A Certificates against those same aircraft-secured loans.
The Class B and Class E Certificates are subordinate to the Class A Certificates. Similarly to the Class A Certificates, both Class B and E Certificates were completed by Jefferies, LLC, who served as sole structurer and sole book runner to the transaction.
“With American’s credit profile further improving, RPK saw an extra opportunity to improve our investment’s return”, said James Raff, President of RPK Capital Partners.
January 17, 2014 – Chicago, IL |
RPK Capital Partners a leader in aviation investment transactions, has sold two Boeing 757-200 aircraft to Fortress Investment Group. Both aircraft are currently on lease to Delta Air Lines and are operated under United States registration marks N657DL and N659DL.
“RPK saw a great opportunity to realize a return to our investment“, said Paul Redman, Managing Director and Head of Marketing at RPK Capital Partners. “Delta Air Lines is a great airline and its credit profile has only improved”, Mr. Redman continued.
RPK Capital Partners routinely evaluates all investment positions and has thorough risk management processes to capture improved economic results.
August 1, 2013 – Chicago, IL |
RPK Capital Partners, a leader in aviation investment transactions, has issued Class A Certificates against its American Airlines’ aircraft-secured loans.
In October of 2012 RPK lent American Airlines $268 million secured by 10 mid-life aircraft. The eight-year term secured loan proceeds were used by the airline to refinance existing debts and manage general operating costs.
RPK worked with Jefferies, LLC, who served as sole structurer and sole book runner to the transaction, to complete the offering. Prior towards issuance, the Class A Certificates obtained a ‘BBB’ rating from Fitch Ratings.
“RPK is very pleased with this offering”, said James Raff, President of RPK Capital Partners. “The American credit has vastly improved and enabled us to realize our investment returns quicker than originally estimated”, added Mr. Raff.
by John Pletz | June 5, 2010 | Crain’s Chicago Business |
Jim Raff is swooping back into the aircraft market, looking for bargains and packing a $600-million bankroll from private-equity giant Carlyle Group.
He’s hoping to repeat the performance of his last fund, which successfully rode the industry’s bust and recovery cycle from 2004 to 2007.
“We think the time is right to start buying,” says the Chicago banker, who got his start 23 years ago lending money to United Airlines. Mr. Raff’s RPK Capital Partners hopes to leverage Carlyle’s funds to buy more than $1 billion in aircraft and engines or related bonds and debt.
He’s riding a wave of private-equity money flooding into the aircraft-leasing business on the theory that prices are nearing the bottom and will climb as aviation recovers. Connecticut private-equity firm Oak Hill Capital Management LLC and others invested $1.4 billion in Avolon, an aircraft leasing venture based in Ireland; San Francisco-based Jackson Square Aviation LLC raised $500 million from Oaktree Capital Management L.P.
The capital is crucial to the continued rebound of plane makers like Chicago-based Boeing Co. Its airline customers must sell off older planes before they can buy new ones like the 787. But more cash for leasing firms also means more competition for deals. “The biggest risk is if they’re all in a giant rush to invest that money in transactions that don’t make sense,” says Glen Langdon, CEO of Langdon Asset Management Inc. in San Francisco, which buys and sells aircraft.
Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle is making its first foray into aircraft finance, betting big on Mr. Raff and partners Paul Redman, Robert Gates and Chris Chaput. “We liked Jim’s strategy and approach,” says Adam Palmer, a Carlyle managing director. “When combined with his track record through the last cycle, we decided to partner with him and his team.”
Mr. Raff grew up in rural Connecticut and came to Chicago in 1987 as a lender for AMRO Bank. He later worked for Denver-based aircraft-leasing company Republic Financial Corp. and Boston-based BTM Capital Corp. before returning to Chicago in 2004 to start RPK Capital, a $200-million fund.
Photo: Erik Unger
by Jeremy Lemer | April 22, 2010 | Financial Times |
The Carlyle Group intends to invest $600m in a joint venture that will buy commercial aviation assets around the world in the latest sign of a gradual thaw in the battered aviation finance markets.
Carlyle, the private equity group, and RPK Capital Management, a Chicago based specialist in aviation investments, have set up a new company that will purchase over $1bn of assets thanks to leverage.
RPK, which will manage the portfolio and also invest $20m, intends to buy bank debt secured against assets such as jets and spare parts and also various aircraft and engines that will then be leased out to airlines.
The move marks the first time that Carlyle, which has over $88bn of assets under management, has invested in aircraft leasing and debt and is an unusual divergence from its usual practice of running its own investments.
In the past it has made substantial investments in the aerospace and defence sector but has mainly favoured manufacturing companies like Vought Aircraft Industries, a major component supplier.
Carlyle is one of a number of investment companies that have targeted aviation assets in recent weeks. In late March Oaktree Capital Management helped kick start Jackson Square Aviation, an aircraft leasing company, with a $500m investment.
Adam Palmer, a managing director at Carlyle, said that the company had looked at the market several times over the last few years but until now had never found the right moment, or the right business plan, to make it worthwhile.
“We are seeing signs of recovery in the airline consumer market, but the credit dislocation has been so severe that as capital comes back it is flowing into blue chip carriers like Lufthansa,” he said.
“There are hundreds of other airlines that are struggling to find financing … the question is will the markets be open to them or will there be some alternative structure that they are forced to look to? That is what we are trying to create.”
RPK will focus on lending and leasing to second and third tier airlines around the world and will also look at older aircraft. The group will take a cyclical approach, putting capital to work for about five to seven years.
Since the summer of 2009 capital markets have reopened to the major airlines and they have successfully raised billions of dollars to finance new aircraft orders and replenish their reserves.
But elsewhere financing remains tight as leasing companies, such as International Lease Finance Corp, that have traditionally supported the market sell assets rather than extending new financing and commercial banks husband their capital.
According to DVB Bank, a transport finance specialist, in 2010 about $30bn will be required to fund new deliveries to non-prime carriers alone – an amount that will only partially be filled by export credit agencies, such as the US Export-Import Bank, and other sources.
Evercore Partners and Debevoise & Plimpton advised Carlyle on the deal. RPK was advised by The Seabury Group and K&L Gates
By Jeremy Lemer
Published: April 22, 2010
