Combined with AWAS to create one of the world's leading aircraft leasing companies
Pegasus was one of the world’s leading providers of capital to airlines for new deliveries and fleet management solutions. At acquisition in 2007, Pegasus owned a fleet of 80 owned aircraft and a pipeline of 39 aircraft on forward order.
In 2007, combining Pegasus with Terra Firma’s existing aircraft leasing business, AWAS, created significant synergies, generate a more diverse customer base and a younger aircraft fleet and significantly strengthen its worldwide position.
As well as the operating synergies which came from combining the two businesses, the acquisition broadened AWAS’s customer and supplier base. Furthermore, Pegasus’s young fleet of aircraft substantially reduced the average age of the combined portfolio, making it more attractive to customers and financiers alike.
AWAS was resourced to capitalise on aircraft investment and disposal opportunities in addition to the more typical ‘buy and hold’ strategy. As part of this more active strategy, the business sells off aircraft as they get older in order to improve the return on the portfolio.
AWAS has placed significant new orders with Airbus and Boeing for more than 100 next generation aircraft, deploying recently injected equity on selective portfolio/aircraft acquisitions which will double the asset base of the business by 2015. In addition to supporting the forward order book, this strong capital position gives AWAS the means to offer its customers innovative fleet management solutions such as sale and leaseback transactions or aircraft exchanges.
The AWAS investment has been fully realised.