Seabury Capital Group LLC announced the formation of Seabury Aircraft Capital LLC (SAC) through a combination of its existing advisory practices and the acquisition of an investment banking firm Structured Finance International (SFI) whose professionals have arranged over the past 20 years aircraft financings with an aggregated acquisition costs exceeding $18 billion (in 2020 dollars).

By virtue of this combination, SAC will be one of the leading advisory and capital arranging firms for financing for new and used aircraft, using innovative tax and non-tax driven financing structures. With SAC, Seabury Capital Group professionals have a combined history of advising on over $300 billion of new aircraft agreements, $30 billion of aircraft financing structures and over $100 billion in corporate financing arrangements.

Buttressed with SFI’s investment banking capabilities, market knowledge and expertise in the development and implementation of structured financing solutions for aerospace clients, SAC will assist carriers in sourcing and purchasing assets, as well as in arranging and executing the financings, specific to each airline fleet and balance sheet’s requirements.

In addition, the unit leadership’s unique ability to analyze transactions from the perspective of all key participants, including airlines, manufacturers, and investors, as well as their long-standing relationships within the investment community, are strategically positioned to expand Seabury Capital’s investor pool, making airlines and aircraft more appealing to a wider array of institutional and other investors.

John E. Luth, Chairman, President and CEO of Seabury Capital Group, described the acquisition as the "further expansion of our current and related business lines, which have deep familiarity with and established presence in the global airline market. With the incorporation of SFI and its capabilities, we will deliver increasingly comprehensive, best-in-class support for airlines seeking to take full advantage of growth opportunities, and for manufacturers and investors vying to supply aircraft for these opportunities on favorable economic terms."

SAC will be led by SFI’s founding members Stacey Wilson as Managing Director and Stephen Danner and Marty Dugan as Executive Directors – the team that boasts a two-decade-plus formidable track record in pioneering the first financing structures still in place today and financing more than 1,000 aircraft on behalf of airlines, manufacturers, and investors since SFI’s beginnings in the 1990s.

Prior to SFI, Wilson was Director of Structured Finance Aerospace with CIT Group (formerly Newcourt Credit Group). Since 1996, he has served globally as lead advisor and financial arranger on behalf of manufacturers of commercial airliners, airlines, and institutional debt and equity investors. Danner has more than 27 years of capital finance experience in aerospace, rail, energy, real estate, and general asset-based finance. He was Senior Director in the Capital Markets group at CIT. Dugan has more than three decades of experience in asset finance, capital structuring, advisory services, and operations management. He has led the structuring and arranging of more than $10 billion in equipment and enterprise financing, with a large portion focused on aviation.

"We are pleased to join forces with Seabury Capital to grow SAC, which is anchored in our high-volume, process-driven approach for financing aircraft," commented Seabury Aircraft Capital Managing Director Wilson. "When CFOs of client companies work with our team, they have confidence and trust that we will identify the right financing and deliver high quality financing solutions on schedule. Having consistently financed on average 30-50 aircraft per year, our team has the in-depth market knowledge, intelligence, and investor visibility required to ensure things get done."

Luth concluded: "The SFI team’s success in financing some of the largest fleet orders in history will bolster SAC’s execution capabilities, allowing for deeper market penetration and expansion of our client base. By scaling up our service offerings, we will further cement our reputation as the most efficient and reliable aircraft financing team in the business."