Aircraft leasing firm signs unsecured credit facility

21 May 2018
Facility to support future financing needs of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise

Aircraft leasing firm Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) has signed an unsecured four-year revolving credit facility with an initial commitment of $480m and an “accordion feature” that allows the facility to be increased to up to $800m at any time after the initial closing.

The facility includes conventional and Islamic tranches and will support the future financing needs of the business, the company says in a statement.

Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait and First Abu Dhabi Bank are lead arrangers and joint book runners, Noor Bank is lead arranger, and First Abu Dhabi Bank is global and Islamic investment agent.

The facility further diversifies the firm’s funding sources and adds to the unsecured component of its liquidity profile, increasing unsecured revolving credit facilities to between $1.1bn and $1.4bn depending on the final committed amount of this facility, DAE CEO Firoz Tarapore says.

If fully drawn – and if the proceeds are used to pay down secured indebtedness – the facility is expected, on a pro forma basis as of December 2017, to take the percentage of DAE’s unsecured debt from 26 per cent to between 31 and 34 per cent.

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