Ex-Im Bank Provides $187.4 Million Guarantee for Bond Issuance Supporting Sikorsky Helicopters to Milestone Aviation Group
Washington, D.C. - The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) is providing a $187.4 million guarantee of a capital-markets bond to finance the export of Sikorsky S-92® helicopters to The Milestone Aviation Group Ltd. of Dublin, Ireland.
The transaction is Ex-Im Bank's largest financing of US.-manufactured commercial helicopter exports and the agency's first support of these exports to a helicopter-leasing company.
It is also the first Ex-Im Bank-guaranteed bond issuance in the capital markets to fund helicopter exports. Deutsche Bank Securities was the sole structuring agent and the lead book runner for the bond issuance on May 22. The bond was priced at par to yield 1.87 percent.
The export sale supports approximately 1,500 jobs in the U.S. helicopter industry, according to Ex-Im Bank estimates derived from Departments of Commerce and Labor data and methodology. The S-92® helicopters are being manufactured at Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. facilities in Stratford, Conn., and Coatesville, Pa. Principal subcontractors also involved in the manufacture are Hamilton Sundstrand, Rockwell Collins and General Electric.
Ex-Im Bank's capital-markets financing has proven to be a successful way to fund exports of U.S.-made large commercial aircraft. Extending this type of funding to helicopter exports will help support more American jobs and more companies in the very competitive U.S. aerospace industry, said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg.
