15 November 2013 | Stratos will provide aircraft financial advisory, sourcing and lease-related services to airlines and investors.
Monaco, 15th November 2013: Experienced aircraft financier, Gary Fitzgerald, today announced the launch of Stratos – a financial advisory boutique, specialising in aircraft leasing and financing. Stratos will also provide aircraft sourcing and lease-related services to airlines and investors.
“Stratos has been created to address a gap in the market where many airlines and investors need cheaper and easier access to aircraft operating lease platforms. They also need advanced technology to decipher aircraft economics and the ability to tap into a network of industry financing experts” says Fitzgerald.
As the industry is increasingly adept at creating new financing solutions for aircraft, it has become more challenging for airlines to choose the most appropriate funding mix to deliver fleet flexibility. Current values of many mid-life aircraft have become permanently marked down, in many cases stubbornly below book values, causing a book value mismatch.
At the same time the current over-supply of funds chasing returns in this market has left investors struggling to find decent investment opportunities. Fitzgerald comments “This supply imbalance, coupled with the book value mismatch situation, is causing considerable challenges for airlines and investors alike.”
Stratos is positioned to address these and other challenges by leveraging its industry knowledge, contacts and experience and to use its advanced lease modelling technology to create innovative leasing platforms in a highly cost effective manner.
Stratos comprises a team of experienced industry executives located across three continents, all of whom bring invaluable expertise to provide bespoke advisory services:
- Gary Fitzgerald, Managing Director, has spent the past 15 years creating lease SPVs and remarketing large aircraft, most recently at Avinco and Avequis (CA-CIB).
- Aisling McCarthy, Commercial Director, has spent over 11 years leasing and trading aircraft, most recently at AWAS (Terra Firma) and Pembroke (Standard Chartered).
- Mark Shaw, Marketing Director, has 30 years’ experience in the leasing and MRO industries, including the past 12 years at Aviation Capital Group (Pacific Life).
- Ervin Bach, Technical Director, is an engineer with a long and distinguished track record recovering and transferring aircraft for AWAS and Pegasus (Oaktree Capital).
Philip Meeson, Executive Chairman of UK Leisure Airline Jet2.com commented: ‘’This is an exciting development and certainly fills an industry need. Gary and his team are hugely experienced in developing innovative solutions for the financing and acquisition of commercial aircraft. I look forward to working with them’’.
ENDS
Stratos Press Release
Stratos | Gary Fitzgerald Phone: +377 678633122 Email: [email protected]
About Stratos
Headquartered in Monaco, Stratos is a newly created boutique advisory firm providing independent aircraft financing advisory solutions for airlines, investors and manufacturers. Stratos comprises several experienced industry professionals based in Europe, Asia and the USA. Please visit: www.stratos.aero