HI Uplift: RIVE finds fresh wind from Milestone heli deal

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by Mike Stones

13 February 2026

Three of the four newly-acquired helicopters will be used to support offshore wind generation projects.

Power generation from North Sea wind platforms is enjoying a bit of a moment. In January, the UK government launched Europe’s biggest single procurement of offshore wind in a record 8.4 gigawatt (GW) auction. In the same month, RIVE Private Investment revealed it had acquired a four-helicopter portfolio from Milestone Aviation.

The deal included three Leonardo AW139s and one Leonardo AW169 – with three of the fleet supporting the offshore wind industry in the North Sea and the remaining aircraft serving offshore oil and gas operations. All four helicopters were acquired with their existing lease contracts attached, as part of a transaction signed last year. The contracts include HeliService and Uni Fly, both said to be pioneers in hoist-equipped helicopter services for offshore wind.

“This is not an opportunistic purchase, but it is part of our long-term strategy to steadily deploy capital in the helicopter market,” Camille Brunel, partner, RIVE told Helicopter Investor. “We consider that the long-term prospects of this critical sector remain strong. This is another testimony of our commitment to this industry.”

Renewable resources

It’s a commitment to offshore power generation from renewable sources that runs contrary to the US government’s obvious preference for fossil fuels. (Last week the Trump administration launched a new mascot in the form of an animated piece of coal with a post on the social media platform X proclaiming: “Mine, Baby, Mine!” This follows the president’s earlier advice to: “Drill, baby drill!”).

RIVE remains unswayed in its commitment to renewable energy. “We believe the offshore wind energy is here to stay and set to grow, irrespective of the current US president’s inclination towards other forms of energy sources,” Brunel told us. “The world needs more energy produced from more diversified sources of energy and increased resilience of our economies. The offshore wind sector is one of the answers. Those are long-term infrastructures that will require helicopter capacity over the long term.”

The UK government’s investment in Europe’s biggest single procurement of offshore wind is a landmark moment, according to the Paris-based lender. “This is another testimony of European dynamism in the offshore wind industry,” said Brunel. “The impact of this particular auction will be felt over the long term only, as these projects do take time to commission. But it is definitely a good sign that despite geopolitical tensions, the appetite to support this industry is not waning.”

‘The most in-demand assets’

RIVE is already active in the offshore North Sea wind sector where with other helicopters and four service vessels. “The AW139 and AW169 are among the most in-demand assets in the market for these critical missions,” said Brunel.

Commenting on sale of the four helicopters to RIVE, for an undisclosed sum, Milestone said the transaction aligns with Milestone’s disciplined approach to portfolio management. “As the fleet evolves, we actively look for opportunities to recycle capital, rebalance exposures, and support long‑term fleet optimisation,” Mark England, head of Leasing Operations, Milestone told us. “Selling select aircraft at the right point in their lifecycle is part of that strategy.”

The portfolio sale enables the lessor to redeploy capital into new opportunities that generate strong returns and which also reduce the average age of the portfolio through the continued investment in new-technology helicopters, he added. It also supports Milestone’s broader objective of maintaining a flexible, well‑diversified portfolio that is positioned for sustainable growth.

Milestone continues to see healthy levels of activity across the helicopter market. “Transactions like this are a natural part of our portfolio management strategy,” said England. “We value our longstanding relationship with operators and financial partners and will continue to take a balanced, disciplined approach to fleet decisions.”

71 lease agreements

The lessor signed 71 lease agreements with 23 customers in 2025. This included an agreement with Bristow Group for five Airbus H160s at the end of the year. Milestone is now the first lessor with H160s. Plus, it does not have a single Sikorsky S-92 helicopter available for lease compared with 18 S-92s on the ground in 2020.

To finance this acquisition, RIVE structured the senior financing with South African bank Investec, with which the lender has partnered on a previous transaction.

Serving as legal counsel on the buy side was Odi-sé Avocats and on the sell side was Smith Gambrell Russel. On the financing side (legal counsel). Financing side legal counsel was provided by Watson Farley Williams.

One of largest offshore wind farms

Meanwhile, the UK government’s 8.4GW offshore wind auction earlier this year included plans to included plans to build one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms in the outer Firth of Forth off Scotland’s east coast. One of 12 projects, the new 4.1GW wind farm, including up to 307 turbines, is expected to create enough electricity to power up to 6m homes. Together, the projects are expected to unlock results unlock £22bn in private investment and support about 7,000 jobs.

This week the UK unveiled a further 28 onshore wind projects with a capacity of 1.3 GW plus solar and tidal energy projects. Combined with January’s offshore wind auction, the government claims to have secured a record 201 projects, generating 14.7GW of new power – enough to supply the equivalent of 16 million homes.

According to a government statement: “In an increasingly unstable world, by accelerating investment in homegrown clean power, the government is also reducing the UK’s exposure to volatile global fossil fuel markets, which have contributed to half of all recessions since the 1970s and in 2025 alone, saw prices spike over 15% within a week due to global price shocks after global instability in the Middle East.”

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