Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) reported its financial results for full year total revenue of US$1,421.3m for 2019, in line with its 2018 figures of US$1,436.6m, and it reported profit before tax of US$413.6 million.
DAE’s profits were also in line with the 2018 numbers of US$428.8 million and resulted in pre-tax profit margin of 29.1% , and a net debt to equity ratio of 2.64x versus its year-end 2018: 2.57x) the lessor said.
The lessor’s results also reported that unsecured debt as a percentage of total debt was 62% a jump on the 46% it reported the previous year.
Commenting on the results Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of DAE, said that the growth of DAE in the last few years has boosted the contribution of aviation to Dubai’s success.
“DAE has executed its strategy effectively and is today a successful, large-scale lessor with more than 400 aircraft in its portfolio. We are pleased with the progress DAE has made with the support it has received from ICD.”
Khalifa AlDaboos, managing director of DAE and deputy chief executive of ICD, added: “DAE has distinguished itself in the marketplace by creating a differentiated go-to-market strategy. This has translated into high and stable returns and a market leading position. In 2019, we at ICD increased our ownership percentage of DAE to 100%.”
Firoz Tarapore, chief executive of DAE, described 2019 as “a breakout year for” for the lessor, because of the growth it saw in its aircraft asset management business.
“In 2019, we received the largest single mandate in the industry to source and manage aircraft assets. Our profitability, capital adequacy and liquidity metrics remain very strong. In 2019, we further boosted our percentage of unsecured debt, dramatically enhanced our liquidity profile and reported head-of-class efficiency metrics.”
DAE now has investment grade ratings from three U.S. credit rating agencies after receiving an initial investment grade rating from Fitch in July 2019 and a recent upgrade to investment grade by Moody’s.”