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Aviation News Item: 07969
30th Apr 2010
B&B Air invests in its manager and repurchases shares
Source: evaint.com
Babcock & Brown Air Limited, a global aircraft lessor, announced that it had completed an $8.75 million investment in BBAM LP, the company that manages its portfolio of 62 modern and fuel-efficient commercial jet aircraft. The investment in BBAM was originally announced on April 2nd.
BBAM, a new privately-held company formed by the former senior executives of Babcock & Brown Aircraft Management LLC, has acquired the majority of the aviation assets of Babcock & Brown Limited and has hired the related staff. At the closing of the transaction, BBAM became the manager of over 290 leased aircraft, including those in B&B Air's portfolio.
In a related transaction, B&B Air purchased 2,011,265 of its own shares from BBL at a price of $8.78 per share. These shares represent approximately 6.6% of B&B Air's outstanding shares as of December 31, 2009. In addition, the BBAM management team, acting through Summit Aviation Partners LLC, acquired one million B&B Air shares from BBL, also at a price of $8.78 per share. B&B Air's investment in BBAM and its repurchase of its shares was funded from its unrestricted cash.
"Our investment in BBAM provides B&B Air with a 15% interest in a company that manages more than 290 commercial aircraft," said Colm Barrington, CEO of B&B Air. "B&B Air's repurchase of more than two million of its shares brings the total number of shares repurchased since the start of our share repurchase program to 5.3 million at an average price of $6.23 per share," added Barrington.
Steve Zissis, President and CEO of BBAM added: "As the manager and servicer of B&B Air's fleet, and now the owner of one million shares in the company, our interests are further aligned with those of B&B Air's shareholders. The team has been together for nearly 20 years and we look forward to continuing to build our franchise in aviation."
B&B Air intends to seek shareholder approval to change its name to "FLY Leasing Limited" at its next annual general meeting of shareholders.
A Form 6-K containing detailed information about the transactions outlined above was filed with the SEC today and is available on B&B Air's website.
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