Strategic Value Partners (SVPGlobal) and its affiliates, a global investment firm with more than $18 billion of assets under management, hired John Morabito, Ben Pughe-Morgan and Matthew Eddy for its investment team to capture investment and aircraft management opportunities globally.
SVPGlobal’s expansion of its aviation investment team complements the recently announced acquisition of full ownership of Deucalion Aviation Limited, a global aviation and asset management services platform, by funds managed by SVPGlobal. SVPGlobal had owned 50% of Deucalion since June 2021.
Morabito, who has more than 20 years of aviation experience, joined SVPGlobal as a managing director and will lead SVPGlobal’s day-to-day aviation investing activities. Before SVPGlobal, Morabito served as senior managing director and portfolio manager at an aviation fund focused on relative value investments in the commercial aviation industry. From 2001 to 2017, Morabito worked at CIT, most recently serving as managing director and head of the financial institutions group. Morabito also served on the senior leadership team of CIT Aerospace, an aviation portfolio with more than $10 billion in aircraft assets on lease to airlines globally, and played an instrumental role in selling the CIT Aerospace business to HNA Group.
Pughe-Morgan and Eddy, two aviation industry veterans with more than 30 years combined experience, also joined SVPGlobal as members of the investment team and operating partners focused on aviation. From 2001 to 2019, Pughe-Morgan worked for DVB Bank, where he was head of origination for the Deucalion Aviation Funds, DVB’s in-house leasing arm. Eddy performed various roles at CIT Bank and CIT Aerospace, including roles relating to deal pricing, credit underwriting, portfolio management, strategic initiatives and joint ventures. Eddy also held a fleet strategy role at JetBlue Airways in Long Island, NY.
“We are pleased to welcome John, Ben and Matt to SVPGlobal’s aviation investment team,” Victor Khosla, founder and chief investment officer at SVPGlobal, said. “Over the past few years, we have worked very hard to become a leader in the aviation market and have made significant strategic investments over the past 18 months. With the addition of John, Ben and Matt, SVPGlobal will be even more favorably positioned to identify new and attractive opportunities.”
“Ben, Matt and I are very excited to join the SVPGlobal team. SVPGlobal is an experienced investor in the aviation market, recently capitalizing on a number of investment and aircraft management opportunities,” John Morabito, managing director at SVPGlobal, said. “We look forward to further enhancing the team, contributing to future investments and advancing SVPGlobal’s position in the aviation space.”
