Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) has reported a 16% increase in revenue to US$989 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023. Profit before tax was $207.5 million up on $200.6 million a year ago (previous year’s figures are adjusted to exclude leases to Russia airlines that were written off), with a pre-tax profit margin of 21%. Operating cash flow dipped to $928.9 million.
DAE’s total assets reached $12.434bn in the nine month period, with net debt at $7.73bn, down from $8.05bn at end of 2022. The lessor has available liquidity of $3.84bn, with net-debt-to-equity ratio of 2.46x.
During the period, DAE confirmed it had made open market bond repurchases of US$322.7 million in total. The company also acquired a portfolio of 64 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
DAE acquired 16 aircraft during the reporting period (nine owned and seven to its managed portfolio), the lessor also sold 21 aircraft (13 from its owned book and eight from its managed portfolio).
DAE’s owned fleet has an average age of 7.4 years, and an average remaining lease term of 5.9 years.
“We are continuing to see strong revenue recovery as our airline customers benefit from strong demand, with revenue growth of 16% to US$989 million in the first nine months of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022,” commented Firoz Tarapore, Chief Executive Officer of DAE.
Tarapore added that the acquisition of 64 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft orderbook provided “certainty to our near-term growth prospects and further deepens our commitment to funding next-generation, fuel-efficient aircraft”.
Also during the third quarter, Boeing selected Joramco to establish a new Boeing 737-800BCF freighter conversion line in Amman, Jordan. DAE Engineering’s footprint continues to grow to an expected 22 maintenance lines by the end of 2024.
“We continue to actively manage the liability side of our balance sheet and announced the signing of our largest ever bank financing, a US$1.6 billion multi-tranche financing, structured as a combination of revolving credit facilities and term financing facilities,” continued Tarapore. “We ended the quarter with available liquidity standing at US$3.8 billion, and an exceptionally strong liquidity coverage ratio at 269%. Overall, this quarter can be characterized by the significant amount of franchise enhancing activities, both at DAE Capital and DAE Engineering, as well as the continued strength of our combined businesses as we trend back to, or above, pre-pandemic levels on all fronts.”