DAE signs $2.8 billion of revolving credit facilities

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) on Tuesday announced that it has signed agreements to enter into new long-term, unsecured revolving credit facilities worth $2.8 billion.

The new facilities replace an existing $1.4 billion facility, and the maturity date of the new facilities is March 2031. The addition of the new facilities increases DAE’s revolving credit facility capacity to approximately $4 billion.

The new revolving credit facilities comprise both United States Dollar and United Arab Emirates Dirham commitments totaling $2.3 billion in conventional funding and $0.5 billion in Shari’a-compliant liquidity from 15 global financial institutions.

Emirates NBD and First Abu Dhabi Bank acted as Initial Mandated Lead Arrangers on the conventional facility, and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank acted as Mandated Lead Arranger on the Shari’a-compliant facility.

“We are delighted to announce these new facilities, which further bolster DAE’s liquidity strength,” said Firoz Tarapore, Chief Executive Officer of DAE. “By tapping both conventional and Shari’a-compliant sources of funding, this transaction underscores DAE’s exceptional access to liquidity from both our local banking partners and a globally diversified group of leading financial institutions.” Earlier Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100 per cent of Macquarie AirFinance Limited (MAF) for an approximate enterprise value of $7 billion.

The combined company will have a pro forma fleet of 1,029 owned, managed and committed aircraft and will serve 191 airline customers in 79 countries. Narrowbody aircraft will represent approximately 70 per cent of the combined fleet.

DAE is expected to welcome 37 new airline customers to its portfolio on completion, including airline customers in 7 new country exposures.

WAM