SMBC Aviation Capital ‘s GAEL fund received the Aviation 100 Fund of the Year (New) award.

This is the first time this award has been presented by Airline Economics at its annual awards ceremony in Dublin. The Aviation 100 recognizes the year’s most outstanding performers in the aerospace industry.

GAEL represents one of SMBC Aviation Capital’s most innovative trading transactions to date. It was fully-subscribed after a very short marketing period demonstrating the appetite for the aircraft identified and for investment into the aircraft leasing space from institutional investors in Japan. The fund is now also fully deployed following completion of the eight aircraft transaction.

Brian McArdle, senior director, Aircraft Trading commented: “We are delighted to accept this award from Airline Economics following the successful launch of our inaugural aviation fund, GAEL. This recognizes the hard work and innovation by our team, our shareholder SMBC who we partnered with on the equity raising in Japan and all of our other partners who were part of this success. Aircraft leasing continues to be an attractive asset class for the Japanese institutional investor market and we expect this to continue as more opportunities and products come on stream in the market.”