Dubai: Dubai Aerospace Engineering (DAE) saw a leap in revenues and profits in the first half of 2018, with pre-text profits growing 527 per cent to reach $224.0 million, up from Dh42.5 million in the same period in 2017.
Revenues grew 311 per cent to reach $711.4, compared to $228.7 million in 2017.
The firm said in a statement that the increases reflected an increase in its fleet to 375 owned, managed and committed aircraft following its merger with AWAS, an aircraft lending firm it acquired in August 2017.
Total assets stood at $15.5 billion.
CEO Firoz Tarapore said: “DAE’s strong performance in the first half is the culmination of a lot of hard work that has gone into ensuring a smooth and successful integration and these results would simply not have been achievable without a smooth transition to a combined platform.
“Today, DAE is an exceptionally strong company created by marrying stable and strong ownership with the platform capabilities we acquired last year. Our expectation is for continued improvement in our financial metrics and liquidity profile that will eventually lead to higher credit ratings.”
During the first half, DAE completed the integration of AWAS’s aircraft leasing platform. It purchased 15 aircraft and disposed of 8. It also sold 16 aircraft with a total market value of $900 million.
In July, ratings agency Moody’s changed DAE’s outlook to positive, and S&P Global Ratings changed its rating to BB+.
