Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented the underwriters, led by Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, in the $919 million offering of enhanced equipment trust certificates (EETCs) by United Airlines, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of United Continental Holdings, Inc.
The offering featured two tranches: $636,512,000 of 2.875 Class AA Pass Through Trust Certificates with a final expected distribution date of October 7, 2028 and $283,081,000 of 3.100% Class A Pass Through Trust Certificates with a final expected distribution date of October 7, 2028. The two tranches of certificates have a combined weighted average interest rate of 2.944%, the lowest blended interest rate ever for any EETC transaction. The proceeds from this offering will be used by the Trusts to acquire equipment notes to be issued by United and secured by 13 new Boeing aircraft scheduled for delivery from December 2016 to June 2017.
The Milbank team was led by Capital Markets partners Arnie Peinado and Paul Denaro and associates Gladisley Sanchez and Alex Gefter. The Transportation and Space team was led by partners Elihu Robertson and James Pascale and associates Niels Jensen and Dylan Scher.
A separate Milbank team was led by Transportation and Space partner Helfried Schwarz and associate Nicholas Milburn, as counsel to Commonwealth Bank of Australia as Class AA and Class A liquidity provider.