International law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, led by Global Securities partner Arnold Peinado and Transportation and Space partner Elihu Robertson, acted as US counsel to the underwriters in a $844 million public offering of enhanced equipment trust certificates (“EETCs”) by Continental Airlines, Inc.
Continental sold $711,622,000 aggregate face amount of 4.000% Pass Through Certificates, Series 2012-2A and $132,266,000 aggregate face amount of 5.500% Pass Through Certificates, Series 2012-2B. Continental will use the proceeds of the offering to purchase 21 new Boeing aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2012 and 2013 (including three Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft and 18 Boeing 737-900ER aircraft).
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as joint structuring agents and lead bookrunners for a syndicate of seven underwriters that included Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Jefferies & Company, Inc., as bookrunners, and Natixis Securities Americas LLC, as manager.
Other Milbank attorneys involved in this transaction included Tax partner Andrew Walker, Global Securities associates Kevin MacLeod, Jennifer Beaudry and Meredith Hines, Transportation and Space associates Jim Pascale and Robert Bieber and Tax associate Joanna Grossman.
Transportation and Space partner Helfried Schwarz and associates Tim Harrington and Connor Yim represented Natixis S.A., acting through its New York Branch, in its role as liquidity provider for the EETCs and in its role as depositary.
Continental is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Continental Holdings, Inc. and together with United Air Lines Inc., its sister airline, transports passengers, cargo and mail under the United name. Including its regional operations, United operates approximately 5,570 flights a day to more than 375 U.S. domestic and international destinations.
