Awas Aviation Capital is planning a $600m private placement of senior secured notes due 2016. Awas will use to the proceeds of the placement to repay existing indebtedness and to finance the purchase of new aircraft for general corporate purposes.

The notes will only be offered to qualified institutional buyers in the US. Active joint-bookrunners include Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley with Deutsche Bank acting as a passive bookrunner. Credit Agricole-CIB is co-manager.The bond is rated Ba2 by Moody's and BBB- by Standard & Poors. Earlier this year Awas closed a $530m term loan in the midst of the European debt crisis. Despite market volatility, the lessor was happy with the terms of the deal. Goldman Sachs and Credit Agricole-CIB were joint bookrunners for the transaction.

Awas which has its headquarters in Dublin is one of the largest aircraft leasing companies in the world and serves markets in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia/Pacific.

The company owns a portfolio of 207 modern aircraft with a further 117 of mostly narrowbody next generation aircraft on order from Airbus and Boeing. The aircraft portfolio is on lease to 91 airline customers in 46 countries. In the first half of 2010 Awas secured 20 new leases, 6 extensions and 6 aircraft sales.

A statement from Awas said that the company has continued to reduce the average age of its fleet by disposing of older assets and investing in new aircraft. The statement continued: “These new aircraft will consume up to 20% less fuel than existing models, making them less costly to operate and more attractive to our customers.”

Norwegian lease three new 737-800s from Awas

This week Awas announced the lease of three new 737-800s to Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, the first of which will deliver early next year.  Norwegian is the second largest airline in Scandinavia, operating 54 aircrafts to 93 destinations across Europe and into North Africa and the Middle East.

“We are in the process of renewing our fleet, with the aim of having a 70 strong state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 fleet by 2014, which means that we have one of the most modern, efficient and environmentally friendly fleet commercial operation,” said Bjørn Kjos CEO of Norwegian. “We have been working with Awas for several years and they were an obvious choice for us for this deal. Their market insight and flexible solutions have proved the ideal match to our needs as an airline.”

“The initial delivery in this deal with Norwegian, early next year, will be the first of our Boeing Sky Interior 737-800s to enter the market. As the first lessor to offer this option, we have been delighted with the response of our customers, to date all of our placed pipeline 737-800s have selected the new Sky Interior,” said Ray Sisson, who took over as president & CEO of Awas in August 2010. “Norwegian’s decision to opt for the Sky Interior reflects their dedication to achieving the highest quality customer experience and we are delighted to support them in the realisation of this goal.”