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Ching, Team Help Aerospace Client Soar
As a corporate attorney, Atlanta partner Billy Ching has a large network of clients and is one of the more active cross-marketers within the Firm. Most recently, along with Glenn Sturm, Mr. Ching brought in client Eclipse Aerospace, founded by Mason Holland, and pulled together an Atlanta-Boston team for a deal to keep Eclipse Aviation in the air.
Eclipse Aerospace had previously engaged a very large Texas law firm at the request of Mr. Holland's investors, but after lengthy discussions with Mr. Holland regarding the Firm's transactional private equity bankruptcy expertise, Mr. Ching convinced Eclipse and Mr. Holland to use the Firm's substantial resources for the transaction.
He and fellow partners Peter Haley in Boston; William Gaines, Charles Vaughn, and Michael Hollingsworth in Atlanta; and Atlanta associate Keri Chayavadhanangkur successfully represented Eclipse Aerospace, an investment group formed to purchase Eclipse Aviation out of Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The deal was significant because Eclipse Aviation, makers of high-tech lightweight private jets, held a significant competitive advantage over its competitors, but succumbed to the economic crunch with more than $600 million in debt. The client obtained the company for $40 million, of which $20 million was cash and $20 million was a promissory note.
The company had once attracted the likes of investors such as Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen; insulin pump inventor Alfred Mann; the state of New Mexico, which invested industrial revenue bonds and offered property tax abatements; and a $100 million investment last year from the European Technology and Investment Research Center. The company had presold more than 1,000 planes and took deposits of nearly $1 million per plane before the capital crunch hit.
After a $200 million bid for the company fell through, the company converted from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7.
"Before we submitted our bid, there were several potential bidders, and we developed a deal strategy and bid that we thought would be attractive and also protect our interest," Mr. Ching said. "We were pleased with the great result the client achieved."
With Peter Haley practicing law at the speed of sound, the court approved the $40 million sale in just 10 days, which normally would take 30 days, resolving more than two dozen creditor objections.
