IPO FILING: Greenwich Kahala Aviation Ltd. (GKH)

Greenwich Kahala Aviation Ltd. has filed its F-1 (foreign issuer) paperwork with the SEC for a proposed Initial Public Offering today.  Terms were not set but the filing is for up to $250 million in American Depositary Receipts.  The company is a recently formed, integrated global aviation company that was formed to acquire, lease and trade commercial aircraft.

Underwriters of the IPO are listed as FBR Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities.  It intends to list under the ticker “GKH” on the New York Stock Exchange.

Its intended market will focus on used aircraft which are five years of age or older. The company noted that it expects to acquire aircraft already on lease, aircraft off lease that it can either refurbish and sell or put on lease and  aircraft that may be converted from passenger to freighter configuration.

Newly formed is actually very newly formed.  Since its formation on December 30, 2009, it had no revenues through September 30, 2010.  Greenwich Kahala did acquire a 1991 Boeing 757-200 passenger aircraft on October 1, 2010 and it started receiving revenues from lease payments on the aircraft since.  The cash received from that lease is being used to repay one of its loans.

If this sounds like a non-traditional IPO, it is.  It has some aspects of a SPAC but it is more focused on ongoing efforts that will gradually build.  The company also has two more aircraft under letter that can be acquired.

The company’s three founders are Bradley Smith, Michael Garland and Gerald Sherman.  They have worked together for over seven years at First Greenwich Kahala, managing a portfolio of 53 aircraft totaling about $330 million for third parties.  A combined 80-years of aircraft and finance industry experience exists among these three.

JON C. OGG