Dubai: Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) Ltd. announced today that it has fully repaid a US$705 million bank loan facility from the proceeds of the sale of StandardAero.
The facility was provided by Barwa Bank, Deutsche Bank, Emirates NBD Bank, and Noor Bank.
“This reinforces our credibility with banks and further strengthens our ability to quickly finance large transactions with the assistance of our partner banks,” said Khalifa Al Daboos, DAE’s Managing Director.
DAE is considered one of the most strongly capitalised aircraft leasing companies. According to the Chief Executive Officer Firoz Tarapore, the balance sheet strength enhances the company’s ability to provide large, custom-tailored leasing solutions to their airline clients on a global basis.
“Our current target is to double the book value of our aircraft leasing portfolio in an accelerated time frame,” said Tarapore.
The company announced early July, that it had closed the sale of StandardAero to an affiliate of Veritas Capital. An agreement to the deal was reached in late May 2015.
StandardAero is one of the world’s largest independent MRO platforms with clients in over 70 countries. DAE acquired StandardAero in 2007. The sale was viewed as a way to accelerate StandardAero’s growth.
Upon the sale of StandardAero, DAE announced that they will redeploy capital and refocus efforts on building a world-class aerospace footprint anchored in Dubai. The company said that they will focus on both organic and inorganic opportunities. The company also announced that they will “aggressively” acquire aircraft assets to expand its aircraft leasing portfolio with a current net book value of $3.7 billion.
