In June it moved towards technology, transport and hospitality firms holding intellectual property and VIP client data. By July the crosshairs had narrowed onto private equity firms, law firms and financial ratings agencies, organisations sitting on merger documents, capital deployment plans and live litigation files.

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The announcement, made on 19 July, marks the point at which a deal signed in Washington five months ago turns into metal on the ramp. Griffin and VietJet signed the financing agreement for six 737 MAX 8 jets in February, in a transaction the airline valued at roughly USD 965 million at list prices.

That agreement formed part of a wider package of commitments with American partners worth around USD 6.3 billion, signed on the sidelines of a state visit by Vietnamese leader To Lam to the United States.

A new financing partner
Both sides framed the delivery as the start of a long relationship rather than a one-off transaction. Jose Kling, Griffin’s head of commercial for Asia Pacific, said the lessor was pleased to welcome VietJet as a new customer and expected to support its operations for years to come, adding that the new-technology aircraft suited the carrier’s modernisation and expansion plans across its various operating markets.

Nguyen Thanh Son, VietJet’s chief executive, said the aircraft reinforce the airline’s commitment to a modern and fuel-efficient fleet while allowing it to widen regional and international connectivity. When the financing was first signed in February, Son held the title of managing director.

He was promoted to chief executive in April 2026, so the different titles across the two announcements reflect a career step rather than any inconsistency.

Speaking at the time of the original signing, he said the agreements reflected the airline’s push to broaden its international partnerships and build a modern, sustainable fleet.

For VietJet, the language about diversifying funding sources matters as much as the aircraft themselves. The carrier has openly described the Griffin arrangement as a step towards spreading its international funding base.

Low-cost airlines in Asia have historically leaned heavily on a narrow group of lessors and export credit agencies. Widening that pool reduces refinancing risk at a time when capital costs remain elevated and delivery schedules are anything but predictable.

Two Boeing tracks, one strategy
The Griffin lease sits alongside, rather than inside, VietJet’s much larger direct order with Boeing. That order began with a 100-jet commitment signed in Hanoi in May 2016 during a state visit by then US president Barack Obama, and was doubled to 200 aircraft through a memorandum signed at the 2018 Farnborough Airshow.

The additional 100 jets were confirmed as a firm contract worth USD 12.7 billion at list prices in February 2019, at a Hanoi ceremony witnessed by then US president Donald Trump during the US-North Korea summit, taking the full commitment to a value of roughly USD 24 billion.

Deliveries were originally pencilled in for 2019 to 2023, but the global MAX grounding and the pandemic pushed the timeline back by the best part of a decade. VietJet, long an Airbus-dominated operator, took its first aircraft from that direct order only last year.

The six Griffin jets are a separate transaction on top of that order book, part of a broader push by VietJet to bring forward capacity through leasing while its own Boeing order works through its backlog.

As of late 2025, when the first directly ordered MAX arrived, VietJet was operating around 121 aircraft with an average age of just over eight years, spanning A320-family narrowbodies, A330 widebodies, COMAC ARJ21s and Dash 8 turboprops.

The net effect is the same either way. The fleet is shifting from single-manufacturer simplicity to a dual-source model, financed through a mix of direct ownership and leasing.

Griffin’s Asian expansion
Griffin is a comparatively young name in a business dominated by AerCap, SMBC Aviation Capital and Avolon.

The company was founded by aviation executive Ryan McKenna and built through a partnership with Bain Capital Credit, which supplies capital to acquire and lease aircraft globally while Griffin handles lease management.

The business now runs offices in Dublin, Tokyo, Singapore, Puerto Rico and Los Angeles, and positions itself as a provider of bespoke capital solutions to airlines, manufacturers and financiers.

Its scale has grown quickly. In late 2025 Griffin closed an inaugural USD 1.245 billion series into its mid-life aircraft master trust platform, an issuance McKenna described as the largest in the history of the aircraft securitisation market, backed by 25 narrowbody and widebody aircraft with a weighted average age of 4.1 years on lease to 19 airlines across 15 countries.

Asia has been central to that growth. Griffin agreed a purchase and leaseback of ten Boeing 737-8s with Air India Express in December 2023. Sarit Chopra, a partner at Bain Capital, called India one of the fastest-growing aviation hubs in the world at the time, citing policy support and rising travel demand.

Vietnam is the logical next stop. Adding VietJet gives Griffin exposure to a carrier whose growth story runs alongside a national travel market expanding at pace.

Vietnam’s aviation boom
The backdrop is a country adding capacity across every major carrier at once. Boeing’s announcement of the Vietnam Airlines order cited estimates that Vietnamese air traffic could double to more than 75 million passengers a year over the next decade.

In February, three Vietnamese carriers placed orders totalling roughly 96 aircraft worth over USD 30 billion, with Vietnam Airlines finalising an USD 8.1 billion deal for 50 737 MAX 8s scheduled for delivery between 2030 and 2032, and Sun PhuQuoc Airways committing to as many as 40 787-9 Dreamliners.

The scramble for earlier capacity has continued since. At the Farnborough International Airshow this week, Vietnam Airlines said it would add 19 leased 737 MAX 8s from SMBC Aviation Capital, Avolon and Phoenix Aviation Capital, with deliveries due in 2028. These arrangements point to carriers working around production backlogs and long lead times by turning to lessors for nearer-term aircraft.

That is precisely the gap Griffin is selling into. When manufacturers cannot promise delivery slots, the lessors holding order positions become the fastest route to new metal.

Fuel costs cloud the picture
The expansion is not happening in benign conditions. Vietnam Airlines reported pre-tax profit of about VND3.95 trillion, roughly USD 150.1 million, at parent level in the first quarter of 2026, but said its performance was badly affected from April onwards by a sharp rise in jet fuel prices linked to the conflict involving Iran. Low-cost carriers with thin margins and high aircraft utilisation feel that squeeze quickly.

For VietJet, newer aircraft are part of the answer. A MAX 8 burns meaningfully less fuel per seat than the older narrowbodies it replaces, which turns fleet renewal from a branding exercise into a hedge against energy prices. Leasing rather than buying keeps the capital cost off the balance sheet while the fuel benefit accrues immediately.

What to watch
The remaining five aircraft in the Griffin package will show whether this becomes a durable relationship or a single transaction.

Also worth watching is how VietJet allocates the jets across its group operations, and whether the airline returns to Griffin for widebody financing as it weighs long-haul ambitions. For Griffin, the deal is a foothold in a market where nearly every carrier is buying at once.

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Members of Volkswagen’s supervisory board have been briefed on the plans, due to be discussed at a board meeting on July 9. The proposed closures at Hanover, Zwickau, and Emden, along with Audi’s Neckarsulm site, would put more than 45,000 jobs at risk, on top of 50,000 cuts already agreed with unions in late 2024. The brutal layoff of 100,000 people, along with the shutdown of four assembly plants, will be the largest restructuring in the automotive industry’s history, according to people familiar with the matter and a report by Manager Magazin.

The shake-up will be as massive as the one conducted by General Motors (GM) during its ⁠2009 bankruptcy and in the early 1990s, when the American automaker cut as many as 74,000 jobs and shut or idled 21 plants.

CEO Oliver Blume presented the plans to senior executives this week as he tries to align management behind cuts likely to face fierce resistance from unions and the state of Lower Saxony, Volkswagen’s second-largest shareholder. Blume and Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz are also said to be planning a broader restructuring, including spinning off the core VW brand and parts operations into separate entities.

Blume and Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz are reportedly aiming to fundamentally restructure the 89-year-old German giant, including spinning off the core VW brand and parts operations into separate entities, Manager Magazin added. The overhaul would also see planned investment cut by around 15%, to just over 130 billion euro (USD 148 billion), over the next five years.

Volkswagen’s works council and Germany’s IG Metall union vowed to resist any such measures, saying in a joint statement, “Should such plans go ahead, we would do everything in our power to prevent them.”

By the end of the 2025 financial year, the group’s overall headcount stood at 667,164, with almost 43% based in Germany. Blume’s overhaul-related plans will go against Volkswagen’s unique governance and ownership structure, which gives significant influence to labor union representatives. In 2024, when Blume wanted to close plants in Germany, he faced fierce resistance from labor unions that forced him to make a retreat.

While the management, back then, had the idea of shutting or selling ⁠several sites as part of a sweeping cost-cutting drive to tackle overcapacity and weak demand in its electric vehicle vertical, IG Metall and the works council conducted massive strikes in a prolonged standoff with the automaker’s management.

The pressure on Volkswagen stems largely from China, where non-Chinese automakers’ market share fell to 32% in 2025 from 57% in 2020, according to AlixPartners. Volkswagen, once China’s top-selling automaker, was overtaken by BYD in 2024 and slipped to third place last year. Premium rivals including BMW have also flagged weaker China sales.

Volkswagen shares have fallen more than 25% so far in 2026. Apart from tough Chinese competition, the carmaker is also tackling stiff tariffs on car imports into the United States as well as dwindling demand in Europe, which, as per the company, has made its business model unsustainable.

According to the management consulting firm AlixPartners, non-Chinese automakers’ market share in the world’s largest automobile market fell to 32% in 2025 from 57% in 2020. Having been China’s top automaker for years, Volkswagen got knocked into second place by BYD in 2024. In 2025, the automaker got relegated to third place. To make things worse, Chinese automakers are also expanding into emerging markets, apart from growing rapidly on Volkswagen’s home turf in Europe.

BYD, Chery, SAIC, and Leapmotor doubled their combined European market share through May from a year ago, according to ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association).

As per Germany’s Bild newspaper, Volkswagen is also planning to end its automated driving tie-up with auto supplier Bosch to cut costs and ‌boost its competitiveness. The partnership was launched in 2022 with Volkswagen’s software unit Cariad to develop software for driver assistance and autonomous driving across the automaker’s brands.

Citing sources, Bild said the project had not met expectations after around 1.5 billion euro (USD 1.71 billion) had been invested in it.

“Internal assessments found the technology was not yet competitive. The Bosch tie-up is scheduled to be ended ⁠in accordance with the terms of the contract, and a final termination would not occur before Monday (29th June),” the newspaper added further.

“Volkswagen plans to source hardware and software for ⁠such systems from a new partner. A replacement is currently being chosen, with a contract planned by September,” Bild added further.

The automaker, pursuing its aggressive cost-cutting further, has agreed to sell its diesel engine unit, Everllence, to Bain Capital in a leveraged deal (in which a company is acquired ⁠largely with borrowed money), generating proceeds of about 7.4 billion euro (USD 8.4 billion).

“Leaner structures and processes will give Everllence the opportunity to achieve further growth in attractive markets such as data centers, the energy sector, and shipping. At the same time, it will allow us to focus even more strongly on our core business,” Blume said while announcing the move.

Bain, in the medium term, will remain Everllence’s major shareholder with a 49% stake, which, in the coming years, will rise to 51%. The venture was competing against CVC ‌and ⁠EQT in the bidding race, the latter of which was part of a consortium with Porsche SE and Qatar. It is worth mentioning that Porsche holds 53.3% of voting rights in Volkswagen, followed by the Gulf country (17% through its sovereign wealth fund).

Everllence, formerly known as MAN Energy Solutions, makes diesel engines for the shipping industry. The company has plans to cash in on the ongoing AI boom by meeting demand for generators to power data centers. As part of the deal with Bain, the company’s sites in Augsburg, Oberhausen, Berlin, Hamburg, and Ravensburg will be retained under the new ownership structure at least until the end of 2030.

Image Credit: Volkswagen Group

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The financing was led by Bain Capital Life Sciences. Additional new investors include Adage Capital, Agent Capital, HBM Healthcare Investments, Nan Fung Life Sciences, Partner Fund Management, and Rock Springs Capital. Existing investors also participated in the Series B round, including New Leaf Venture Partners, Frazier Healthcare Partners, Longitude Capital, Osage University Partners, Adams Street Partners, LVP Life Science Ventures, PathoCapital, Goudy Park Capital, Beecken Petty O’Keefe & Company, and Northwestern University.

“This financing will provide fuel for our growing pipeline as we continue to develop our innovative and differentiated NMDA receptor modulators for the treatment of a variety of neurologic disorders with high unmet medical need,” said Norbert Riedel, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Aptinyx. “We are delighted by the support of this syndicate of highly respected global investors with extensive domain expertise, which will be valuable as we advance our pipeline toward late-stage development in multiple indications.”

Concurrent with the financing, Adam M. Koppel, M.D., Ph.D., a Managing Director of Bain Capital Life Sciences, has joined the Aptinyx board of directors.

“Aptinyx is leading a renaissance in neurotherapeutic drug development with its prolific drug discovery platform, unique mechanism of action relevant in a number of challenging neurologic disorders, and ability to quickly advance drug candidates,” said Dr Koppel. “We are eager to support Aptinyx in the development of its portfolio of promising NMDA receptor modulators for the benefit of patients who suffer from these neurologic conditions.”

The funds will support clinical studies of Aptinyx’s drug candidates, including NYX-2925, in development for the treatment of neuropathic pain, and NYX-783, in development as a therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The company also plans to advance a third proprietary compound into the clinic in 2018, initiate development programs in new indications, and continue discovery of additional novel, small-molecule modulators of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors.

Aptinyx is currently conducting a Phase 2 study of NYX-2925 in patients with neuropathic pain associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), as well as an exploratory study in patients with fibromyalgia. The FDA has granted Fast Track designation to the development of NYX-2925 for neuropathic pain associated with DPN.

Aptinyx recently initiated a Phase 1 clinical study to evaluate the safety and tolerability of NYX-783. The company intends to develop NYX-783 for the treatment of PTSD, for which the FDA has granted Fast Track designation.

Aptinyx’s chemistry and discovery platform has generated numerous small-molecule modulators of the NMDA receptor, including clinical drug candidates NYX-2925 and NYX-783. In studies to date, these molecules have demonstrated high oral bioavailability, diverse NMDA receptor subtype binding profiles, differentiated efficacy across preclinical models of various nervous system conditions, and very favorable safety.

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Toshiba made the decision at a board meeting to sell Toshiba Memory Corp. to the consortium led by US fund Bain Capital that it had signed a memorandum with last week to speed up talks on the sale. Toshiba will negotiate exclusively with the group to quickly seal a deal.

The consortium also includes the state-backed Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, the Development Bank of Japan, South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc. and four U.S. technology firms — Apple Inc., Dell Inc., memory product maker Kingston Technology Corp. and data storage company Seagate Technology.

Toshiba is selling Toshiba Memory to make up for the huge losses stemming from its now-bankrupt U.S. nuclear unit by next March and avoid reporting negative net worth for a second straight year that would see it face delisting from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The decision comes after board members also considered a revised offer made at the last minute by a group led by Western Digital, which jointly invests in Toshiba’s Yokkaichi flash memory plant.

While some board members had apparently expressed support for Western Digital’s proposal, it was eventually rejected as many in the company could not overcome their distrust of the U.S. firm following a legal dispute between the two companies over the sale of the chip unit, sources said.

Ties between the two companies had soured after Western Digital took Toshiba to court claiming that the unit’s sale without its consent would breach their joint venture contract.

The main focus of talks between Toshiba and the Japan-U.S.-South Korea group had been how to handle the legal challenges posed by Western Digital.

In its offer, the group said that Bain Capital and SK Hynix would shoulder costs to settle the legal dispute with its longtime partner, the sources said.

The consortium and Toshiba also agreed to keep the ratio of SK Hynix’s voting rights low in the chip unit in the future in order to avoid antitrust issues.

The group also made a proposal that the INCJ and DBJ would invest in Toshiba Memory once the legal dispute is resolved, while Bain Capital and others in the group would pay for the investment by the two Japanese entities.

But Toshiba still needs to figure out ways to quickly reach a settlement with Western Digital, as the sale could still be blocked if the legal spat continues.

In its last-minute offer, the Western Digital-led group said it will give up seeking voting rights in the chip unit after initially demanding more than one-third of the rights to gain veto power, the sources said.

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