Castlelake Launches New Aviation Lending Entity: Merit AirFinance

Distinct aviation lending business to provide debt capital to airlines and leasing companies

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Castlelake L.P. ("Castlelake"), a global alternative investment manager with 20 years of experience investing in asset-based private markets, today announced the formation of Merit AirFinance ("Merit" or "the business"), an aviation lending business which will provide debt capital to airlines and leasing companies for new and used aviation assets.

Merit AirFinance seeks to provide separation between Castlelake's leasing and lending offerings as a new operating subsidiary focused on providing flexible, innovative debt solutions to airlines and leasing companies. Merit will build on Castlelake's robust aviation lending activity, having deployed more than $5 billion to airlines and leasing companies since 2020.

Merit will have a separate office space and a dedicated origination team. Patrick Mahoney will transition from Castlelake's aviation capital markets function to lead Merit AirFinance as its President. Mr. Mahoney will leverage experience in previous roles within Castlelake's aviation underwriting, asset-based direct lending teams and aviation capital markets teams to lead Merit's strategy. Concurrently, Castlelake will welcome Jakob Gallagher to assume Mr. Mahoney's former role, leading Castlelake's aviation capital markets function. Mr. Gallagher has 13 years of experience in aviation capital markets and financing and recently served as Head of Capital Markets at Wings Capital Partners.  

"Castlelake has continuously innovated to provide the aviation market with flexible solutions across all aviation assets and the capital stack, and the formation of Merit AirFinance exemplifies this commitment to a solutions-oriented partnership approach," said Evan Carruthers, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Castlelake. "We believe that this approach is valuable to both aviation industry participants and our investors and that it enables us to create more opportunities to match capital with attractive risk-adjusted aviation exposure."

Merit launches with the ability to deploy more than $1.8 billion of committed capital via separately managed accounts.

About Castlelake
Castlelake, L.P. is a global alternative investment manager specializing in asset-based private credit. Founded in 2005, Castlelake manages approximately $22 billion of assets on behalf of a diversified global investor base and is a strategic partner of Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., a leading global alternative investment manager with over $1 trillion of assets under management. The Castlelake team comprises more than 220 experienced professionals, including 80 investment professionals, across eight offices in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. For more information, please visit www.castlelake.com.

About Merit AirFinance
Merit AirFinance is an aviation lending business focused on providing customized debt capital solutions to airlines and leasing companies for new and used aviation assets. Merit originates, underwrites and structures aviation credit ranging from single-asset loans to large facilities. The Merit AirFinance team consists of experienced aviation finance professionals who embrace a solutions-oriented approach and believe in the value of long-term relationships. For more information, visit https://www.meritairfinance.com/.

Contact

Prosek Partners for Castlelake
Josh Clarkson / Remy Marin
+1 (212) 279-3115
[email protected] / [email protected] 

Merit AirFinance
[email protected] / [email protected]

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SOURCE Castlelake