Air France closes €500m capital solution for AF-KLM E&M

Apollo has closed an agreement for Apollo-managed funds and affiliated entities to make a €500 million investment into an Air France operating affiliate owning a pool of spare engines dedicated to the airline’s Engineering and Maintenance activities. Proceeds from the transaction allow Air France-KLM and Air France to further redeem the French State perpetual bonds provided as State aid due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The bespoke transaction, according to Apollo, was a unique opportunity to provide a leading airline with a custom, asset-backed capital solution to deleverage and improve its borrowing costs. Apollo noted that it had leveraged its cross-platform