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The aviation financing industry has undergone a monumental shift in the past decade. As traditional bank lenders have come under increasing regulatory pressure, by virtue of their systemic importance in a decade of low interest rates and a search for yield, private capital (private equity, hedge funds, distressed debt funds, etc.) has been attracted to the relative stability of cash flows and value retention of aviation assets. It is no secret that private equity and other alternative funds have long been accumulating capital, waiting for the opportune moment.

The COVID-19 Pandemic (the “Pandemic”) has wreaked havoc on the aviation and travel sectors. As difficult as this has been to be involved in, distress is attractive to private equity. As airlines restructure and revisit their global fleet compositions, the market reprices distressed assets to reflect evolving operating conditions. In this relatively illiquid market, therefore, there are unprecedented opportunities for longer term investors with experience in distressed assets.
Continue Reading 2020 hindsight: Finding opportunity in distress

According to PWC research, half of the world’s workforce will be millennials (people born between 1980 and 1995) by 2020. It is also estimated that over the course of the ‘Great Wealth Transfer’ occurring over the coming 30 years, this generation will inherit wealth to the value of $30 trillion.

A lot of editorial ink has been spent on the analysis of millennials, especially on the ways in which their spending habits differ from those of previous generations (smashed avocado, anyone?). It has been reported that the particular context in which this cohort grew up – described by one columnist as ‘a series of moments when the big institutions failed to provide basic security, competence and accountability’ – has ‘fundamentally changed the game for Millennials’. They don’t buy houses in the way their predecessors did. They want access to cars, but not necessarily to own them, and would rather have a smartphone anyway. They are characterised by a ‘quirky eco-conscious individualism’. They want workplaces that offer flexible hours and feel like a community, and would rather keep their lives than work towards partnerships or corner offices.

Similarly, in recent months, we have seen a marked generational change in some of the lenders we work with. While some are determined to carry on as if the GFC never happened, others are looking at building brand new books with innovation and new technology at their core, even in more traditional fields like asset and equipment finance.

All of this has made us wonder. If millennial spending habits are so different from those of previous generations, why should their lending habits stay the same? What happens when the millennials are running those ‘big institutions’? Specifically, what will millennial asset finance look like?
Continue Reading The changing of the guard: Millennial asset finance