White Oak buys federal leasing specialist

FNCC’s senior leadership team, consisting of Kwesi Rogers, CEO, and Kysha Pierre-Louis, chief credit officer, will continue to lead the business.

After completion, the business will be named White Oak Business Capital. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

White Oak CEO Andre Hakkak said: “White Oak is focused on growing its asset-based lending platform to serve the tens of thousands of companies that require debt financing in the US and globally that are currently underserved by traditional capital sources.

“FNCC has built a strong business serving companies in key markets across the US and, combined with the White Oak platform, we believe we can expand FNCC’s offerings to more businesses with a larger array of credit products

“Our investors will continue to benefit from our expansion in commercial finance product offerings and geographic reach.”

White Oak Global Advisors is a global alternative asset manager specializing in originating and providing credit financing solutions to facilitate the growth, acquisitions, refinancing and recapitalizations of small and medium size enterprises.

It has more than $7 billion of capital invested in over 500 companies.

Last month, White Oak completed a $550 million transaction with GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) to buy and immediately lease back 20 wide body aircraft engines.

To facilitate this transaction, and to strengthen and grow White Oak’s financing capabilities for aviation companies, the company created White Oak Commercial Aviation, an affiliated entity of White Oak that is wholly-owned by its institutional investors.

Hakkak said: “As aviation continues to grow domestically and internationally, we saw a great opportunity to apply White Oak’s expertise in lending to businesses that are the bedrock of economic growth by creating a new aviation-focused group.

“I believe this transaction with GECAS, which is widely recognized as the leader in the commercial airline and helicopter leasing market, demonstrates the deep level of skill and knowledge the White Oak Commercial Aviation group brings, and I look forward to expanding our offerings to the aviation market.”

The portfolio of aircraft engines consists of various models serving the Boeing 787 and 777 aircraft market. GECAS will continue to service the engines over the life the lease.