Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised GD Helicopter Finance (“GDHF”) on a €125m+ loan facility with Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (“Helaba”) and Bayerische Landesbank (“BayernLB”) for the acquisition of multiple factory new Airbus H175 and H160 helicopters scheduled for delivery in 2026 and 2027. The deal was backed by French ECA Bpifrance Assurance Export (“Bpifrance”).
This follows GDHF securing a €77m+ financing in 2024 for multiple factory new H160 helicopters, on which WFW also advised.
Using the new loan facility, GDHF already purchased an H160 helicopter in September 2026 and has additional commitments from Helaba and BayernLB to finance multiple new AW189 helicopters to be delivered in 2027.
GDHF is a helicopter finance company based in Ireland with a rapidly growing portfolio of the newest technology, efficient, cost-effective, multi-mission helicopters (via order books). GDHF’s helicopters are leased to helicopter operators globally and are used to deliver critical missions across multiple industry sectors and strong end users, including Offshore O&G, Wind, EMS, SAR, Government, Corporate and Parapublic.
The WFW London Aviation, Aerospace & Defence team that advised GDHF was led by Assets and Structured Finance Partner Patrick Moore, supported by Senior Associate Tim Barnett, Associates Sam Jones, Fawwaz Ahmed, and Tom O’Kane and Trainee Chloe Smyth.
Patrick commented: “We are delighted to have once again advised GDHF as it continues to build a global portfolio of new-generation helicopters. The scale of the facility and breadth of aircraft it supports are testament to GDHF’s ambitious growth strategy and the strong backing it has secured from the financing and export credit communities. We look forward to continuing to support the GDHF team as its platform develops”.
