Legal bill at Airborne Capital hits €4.2m after it is sued in UK
The scale of the firm's mounting legal bill is revealed in the latest set of publicly-available accounts for Airborne Capital, which is a specialised aircraft leasing and asset management firm.
The fees compared to just $443,000 incurred by the company in 2023. They were $2.3m in 2022.
Airborne Capital is embroiled in a legal battle with former shareholder, UK-based InterGlobe Aircraft Management Services (IGAM), a unit of InterGlobe Enterprises that owns India's largest airline, IndiGo.
IGAM has sued Airborne CEO and co-founder Ramki Sundaram and the Irish firm's chief financial officer, Anand Ramachandran.
InterGlobe has also sued a UK-based entity called Airwayy Partnership, which controls 90pc of Airborne Capital's ordinary shares. All the defendants are being represented by London-based global law firm Slaughter & May.
IGAM has claimed they and Airborne conspired to deliberately mislead it and induce it to sell an interest in the business 'at a far lower price than it otherwise would have done'.
Airborne Capital has insisted IGAM has no basis for the $28m (€25m) claim. The firm has said the claims made against it and its directors 'have no basis in fact or law'.
InterGlobe first invested in Airborne Capital in early 2019, acquiring a 42.5pc stake from Kerry-based financial services firm Fexco and taking a total 65pc shareholding in Airborne.
That involved InterGlobe investing $73m in Airborne. Fexco retains a working relationship with Airborne Capital.
In 2022, InterGlobe exited Airborne via an agreement whereby it received an upfront cash consideration of $43.2m and profit participating notes valued at $30.3m.
But InterGlobe claims the defendants misrepresented revenues by more than $15m in order to adversely impact Airborne Capital's valuation, resulting in InterGlobe selling its interest in the leasing firm 'at a discount to the full value'.
The case remains open, according to official court records.
The latest set of accounts for Airborne Capital show that it made a $4.3m pre-tax loss last year, compared to a $1.5m profit in 2023.
Revenue last year rose to $19m from $15.1m the year before.
Had the firm's legal bill not jumped, it would have been closer to a break-even position.
In 2024, the trend of increased travel continued with airlines returning to profitability, the directors note in the newly-filed accounts.
'Capital markets and investor demand for new aviation issuances/exposures is rebounding, offering aircraft trading and other opportunities,' they added.
Earlier this year, Airborne Capital and Daiwa Securities confirmed a joint venture to create Daiwa Airborne.
Airborne Capital said it continues to pursue emerging opportunities, supported by its business alliance with Daiwa Securities, that will offer 'comprehensive support' to high-net-worth individuals and corporations through Japanese Operating Lease products and the management of leasing services.
Last year, activist investment giant Elliott increased its stake in Airborne Capital by way of about $3m in payment-in-kind equity notes.
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