Elusive aircraft e-note sales appear grounded

At the end of 2025, ABS bankers were heralding the return of the 144A market syndicated sales of aircraft-lease equity notes in 2026.

Approaching halfway into 2026, that move, used as an alternative to a trade sale in 2019, appears not to have happened — at least, not in public formats.

Equity notes, colloquially called ‘e-notes’, appear still to be in the pockets of many 144a market ABS debt issuers. Market players expect aircraft lease e-notes to return an estimated 15% yield, dependent on aircraft portfolio construction.

GlobalCapital has learned that e-notes relating to the aircraft lease ABS deals Tailwind 2019-1 and Shenton 2015-1 were sold this year with the deal to sell the Tailwind 2019-1 e-note closing after the outbreak of the war in Iran.

Meanwhile, when Oakstar Cargo, a joint venture between Worldstar Aviation and Oaktree Capital Management, came to market with a $495m ABS deal backed by freight aircraft in early February, 49% of the equity was offered.

But after asking aviation investors, issuers and bankers, GlobalCapital has been unable to confirm if any of those e-notes were sold as part of the deal, named Sprite 2026-1, that was run in the 144A market.

An aircraft ABS issuer that brought a deal earlier this year, whose firm is a repeat issuer, said that while he expected e-note sales to be run in a club-style market to guarantee execution, he was not aware of any e-note sales in public or private formats.

Despite macro issues, the debt part of aircraft lease ABS continues strongly. As of this week, issuance in 2026 stood at around $6.5bn — about 70% of what was issued in 2025.

But a return to a wide open publicly syndicated e-note market appears to be on hold, as geopolitical and macro events mean the interests of sellers and buyers are not aligned.

Nevertheless, aircraft portfolio construction, lease maturity management, and an issuer’s previous use of the ABS market are still key determinants for future e-note sales.