Dubai Aerospace secures $300m, five-year loan

Aircraft leasing firm, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) Ltd., has closed a $300m 5-year, dual tranche term loan.

The lenders comprise of Emirates Islamic and Emirates NBD Capital, the investment banking arm of Emirates NBD.

The unsecured term facility will contain a conventional and an Islamic tranche and can be upscaled to $600m.

The facility will aid the future financing needs of DAE’s business.

Firoz Tarapore, CEO, DAE said: “We are very pleased to enter into this agreement with Emirates Islamic and Emirates NBD Capital, and to deepen our relationship with Emirates NBD as we continue to diversify our pool of liquidity.”

“This facility will be yet another transaction led by ENBD post conclusion of the $600m RCF for DAE in FY2018. DAE remains our key relationship and this transaction demonstrates ENBD’s continued support towards addressing DAE’s financial requirements,” Ahmed Al Qassim, senior executive vice president, group head of corporate & institutional banking for ENBD said.

In Q4 2018, DAE had closed a $800m revolving loan facility. Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait acted as lead arranger and joint bookrunner with First Abu Dhabi Bank.

Read: Dubai Aerospace Enterprise closes $800m loan

Also read: Dubai Aerospace Enterprise to sell 18 aircraft to investors

In January 2020, Moody upgraded the corporate family rating of DAE to Baa3 from Ba1. It also upgraded the senior unsecured rating of subsidiary DAE Funding LLC to Baa3 from Ba2.

Headquartered in Dubai with over 30 years of experience, DAE’s leasing and engineering divisions serve over 150 customers globally from offices in Dubai, Dublin, Amman, Singapore and the US, according to the company website.