Overview

Gus Francis is a partner and member of Chapman's Corporate Finance Department and Lease Finance Group.

Gus has extensive experience in lease finance, with a concentration on rail equipment finance. He represents lessees—including several US Class I railroads—and debt and equity investors in leveraged, single-investor, synthetic, and capital lease transactions involving a variety of assets. Gus's practice includes advising equipment finance companies in connection with structuring and documenting equipment acquisition, financing, and leasing programs for rail and other assets.

Gus also represents insurance companies, pension funds, banks, and other institutional investors in connection with a wide variety of financial transactions, including private placements of debt (both secured and unsecured), complex facility financings, real estate transactions, and equipment financings. Gus is a registered CPA in the State of Illinois.

He has practiced law at Chapman for his entire legal career.

Representative Matters

  • Represented one of North America's leading equipment finance companies in connection with its $3 billion railcar acquisition program and related term ABS transactions.
  • Represented a Class I railroad in capital lease financings of over $845 million in locomotives and rolling stock.
  • Represented the lessee in a lease finance program involving over 1,100 locomotives with an equipment value in excess of $1.5 billion.
  • Represented institutional debt investors in leveraged lease financings of two off-shore oil and natural gas production platforms with privately placed debt and equity.
  • Represented the lessee in a synthetic lease construction financing of the corporate headquarters building for a major US transportation company.
  • Represented the lessee in separate leveraged lease financings of locomotives and rolling stock with public debt and privately placed equity for the two largest US railroads.
  • Represented the lessee in a construction financing of major rail handling facilities for one of the world's largest transportation companies.
  • Represented institutional debt investors in a private placement of senior notes with subsidiary guaranties.
  • Represented the lessee in cross-border lease financings of locomotives involving investors from Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

Memberships

American Bar Association

Illinois State Bar Association

Accreditation

  • Certified Public Accountant, Illinois

Admitted

Illinois, 1994

Education

Chicago-Kent College of Law, J.D., 1994

DePaul University, B.S., 1989

We have always been focused on finance.

  • 1913
    TS Chapman partners with Henry Cutler to form Chapman and Cutler
  • 1st
    Chapman's first client in 1913 is still a client of the firm today
  • 22
    Diverse financial practices serving regional, national, and global clients
  • 6
    Offices across the country and in key US financial centers

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