Thora Capital, a Chicago-based alternative asset manager dedicated to aviation finance, has announced the acquisition of six lease-attached EMS helicopters from Milestone Aviation. The aircraft are leased and operated by Life Flight Network, a nonprofit air medical transport service headquartered in Oregon.

“We are thrilled to announce this acquisition, one of several deals we anticipate consummating over the coming months. Life Flight is a premier operator, and we are excited to support its mission. We expect 2020 to result in continued growth and materially exceed our 2019 deployments,” says Matthew Rothschild, CEO of Thora Capital.

The helicopters will operate within the health network of Life Flight in the Pacific northwest of the US. “We are delighted to be able to close this transaction with Milestone. It was a pleasure to be able to work with a premier organisation with Milestone's depth of resources. The transaction team made the process all the more enjoyable, and we look forward to working on many more transactions with it in the future,” adds Russell Christopher, Thora MD. He leads Thora's origination, sourcing and portfolio management efforts. He continues: “The deal was underwritten for and funded entirely by Thora Fund I, LP, and involved multiple aircraft deliveries in varying locations in the United States. Furthermore, we were successful in utilising senior debt that we sourced from an entirely new debt relationship; this being its first foray in to the asset class, demonstrating our commitment to attract not only new capital but also broaden its addressable market for debt and other valuable resources.”