Thora Capital, a Chicago-based alternative asset manager dedicated to aviation finance, acquired six lease-attached emergency medical services (EMS) helicopters from Milestone Aviation. The aircraft are leased and operated by Life Flight Network, which is headquartered in Oregon.

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

The helicopters will operate within the health network of Life Flight in the Pacific Northwest.

“We are delighted to be able to close this transaction with Milestone. It was a pleasure to be able to work with a premier organization 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 them in the future,” Russell Christopher, managing director of Thora Capital, said. Christopher led this transaction and leads Thora’s origination, sourcing and portfolio management efforts.

“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 utilizing senior debt that we sourced from an entirely new debt relationship; this being its first foray into the asset class, demonstrating Thora’s commitment to attract not only new capital but also broaden its addressable market for debt and other valuable resources,” Christopher said. “This transaction further demonstrates Thora’s appetite to invest in the helicopter sector and our ability to execute.”

Vedder Price was legal counsel to Thora. Daugherty, Fowler, Peregrin, Haught and Jensen was aviation counsel to the transaction.