Babcock & Brown Air, a recently formed aircraft lessor and unit of global investment firm Babcock & Brown, priced its 18.7 million share offering at $23 per share, the mid point of its $22-$24 range. The $430 million in IPO proceeds will be used to help purchase an initial fleet of 47 young commercial jets for a total cost of $1.45 billion (the remainder is being funded with debt and a concurrent private placement). The purchased aircraft are leased to 29 airlines in 16 countries. Morgan Stanley, Citi and Merrill Lynch acted as the bookrunners on the deal. The stock is expected to open for trading on Thursday morning under the symbol "FLY" on the NYSE.
Babcock & Brown is the fourth aircraft lessor to go public over the last 13 months, following the 2006 debuts of Aircastle (AYR), AerCap (AER) and Genesis Lease (GLS). All three are currently trading above their respective offer prices with the best showing to date from Aircastle (up 54%), followed by AerCap (up 8%) and Genesis Lease (up 4%).
