Octagon Aviation: Irish team plots new global aircraft lease firm

AWAS has its main office in Dublin and is owned by the private equity firm Terra Firma

John Mulligan

A heavy-hitting group of veteran Irish aviation executives has come together to help launch a major new international aircraft leasing business that will focus on Asia and require hundreds of millions of dollars in financing, the Irish Independent has learned.

It is not clear at this stage if the new venture, Octagon Aviation Capital, is linked to Shannon-based Gecas, the world's biggest aircraft leasing firm.

Among those spearheading Bermuda-based Octagon is Eamonn Cronin, a former vice president of finance at AWAS, one of the world's biggest aircraft leasing firms.

Like most of the world's top aircraft leasing firms, AWAS has its main office in Dublin. AWAS is owned by private equity firm Terra Firma.

Mr Cronin was an executive with Dublin-based EirTrade Aviation until earlier this year.

Another former AWAS senior executive, New York-based Doug Winter, is also involved in Octagon.

He was formerly the head of sales at AWAS and has been working as a consultant since the end of 2012.

Dubliner Richard Creagh, who has just been appointed the head of Sardinia-based airline Meridiana, is also a director of Octagon.

He was once strategic development manager at Aer Lingus. He left in the 1990s to run Ukraine International Airlines. He was with that carrier until this year.

Fergus Brennan, the former managing director of the Irish arm of Lufthansa Technik Airmotive, is also working with Octagon.

Lufthansa Technik Airmotive announced the closure of its Irish business last year.

Contacted in New York, Mr Cronin declined to elaborate on Octagon and its plans.

Mr Creagh also declined to comment, saying he was bound by a confidentiality agreement. Mr Brennan also declined to comment.

While Octagon has its base in Bermuda, it has also an office in Shannon. An offshoot was also established in Hong Kong earlier this year.

During the spring, there was speculation that an unnamed aircraft leasing company that was possibly connected to Gecas was considering a stock exchange flotation in Hong Kong with a view to raising as much as $700m (€565m).

At the time, local reports suggested that Mr Winter was involved in the process.

Gecas, which is part of General Electric, said at the time that it was not planning a flotation in Hong Kong, but would not comment on whether a business connected to it was.

A US spokesman for Gecas, which is also based in Shannon, was not contactable.

A website for Octagon Aviation Capital tells visitors that the company is a holding company for its subsidiaries, "which will hold portfolios of commercial jet aircraft and lease them under long-term leases to a diverse group of airlines throughout the world, with a focus in Asia".

The planned launch of Octagon Aviation Capital comes as Dublin-based aircraft leasing firm Avolon prepares to make its stock market debut in New York tomorrow.

Founded by Clare-born aviation entrepreneur Domhnal Slattery, Avolon's flotation will see between $286m and $314m returned to founding shareholders including CVC, Oakhill, Cinven and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund. Avolon will have a market capitalisation of as much as $1.8bn (€1.4bn).