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Contact: Karen C. Cook |
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 Seabury Group Opens European Office To Serve Airline Clients :
Former debis AirFinance Executive to Lead Marketing Efforts
NEW YORK, June 14, 2004 - Seabury Group today announced that it is opening a European office in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to better serve airline, other transportation and travel-related companies outside the United States. Senior executives with experience in airline management and consulting and investment banking will serve clients in Europe, the Middle East, The CIS, and North Africa from this base. As part of the company's expansion, Luca Bettini, managing director and head of Seabury's aviation and travel-related businesses for Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, announced that Martin J. Wills has joined the company as a senior vice president to lead its aviation marketing efforts. Mr. Wills comes to Seabury with more than 18 years of experience in sales, marketing, and financial and risk management. He most recently was senior vice president of debis AirFinance, in Amsterdam, and was instrumental in developing this new aircraft leasing company, which became the biggest in Europe and was ranked third in the world. Mr. Bettini said, "We are delighted to have Martin representing Seabury as we expand internationally. His experience in the airline and financial industries - particularly in aircraft leasing and financing - will be important to airlines as they redefine and restructure their operations to help increase profitability." Mr. Wills served as group commercial director of Airclaims Group, London, a supplier of digital aviation data, and as sales director of the International Bureau of Aviation, Ltd., in Gatwick, England, one of the largest aircraft portfolio managers outside the financial community. He spent three years at The Bank of England, London, as a ministry of defense procurement and project management officer, and was a general manager with British Caledonian Airways, which was acquired by British Airways. During his term with the Royal Navy, he specialized in air traffic control and strategic weapons deployment. Mr. Wills earned his Open University Business Management Degree and a B.S. in electrical engineering with honors. Joining Mr. Bettini and Mr. Wills in Amsterdam will be Gianna F. Monsch, senior vice president, who served as vice president of Revenue Information at Swissair and head of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's airline sector for Europe; and Kieran O'Keefe, senior vice president, who was a vice president in Morgan Stanley's Aircraft Group and also worked at Babcock & Brown and GPA Capital. Founded in 1995, the Seabury Group provides investment banking, financial advisory, restructuring and consulting services for the transportation, insurance, real estate, travel, and logistics industries. Seabury currently serves as principal restructuring advisor to Air Canada in its restructuring under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), which is similar to Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code. Previous engagements include successful corporate restructuring and recapitalization assignments for US Airways Group, America West Airlines, Inc., Continental Airlines, Inc., and Kitty Hawk Air Cargo; M&A and financial advisory work for such investment funds as Blackstone Capital L.P., Oaktree Capital L.P., and Texas Pacific Group L.P.; and creditor assignments for such financial institutions as US Eximbank, Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers. Today, Seabury has arguably the largest group of investment banking and restructuring professionals in the world dedicated to the transportation sector. Recent transactions include the arrangement of a C$850 million equity backstop rights offering commitment for Air Canada's emergence from the CCAA proceedings, advisory for private equity funds on a US$125 million equity investment in Spirit Airlines, and advisory for Avianca Airlines (Aerovias Nacionales de Colombia S.A., Avianca, S.A.) in connection with its restructuring under Chapter 11. Seabury Group principals have structured over $100 billion in debt, equity, M&A transactions and strategic affiliations. Seabury employs more than 80 professionals worldwide who have a wide variety of senior executive expertise in structured lease and debt financing structures for transportation and real estate concerns, enterprise risk assessment, insurance, technology, airline fleet and network planning, airport advisory services and IT management information systems. For more information, please see http://www.seaburygroup.com/. Seabury International Office |
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