Dubai Aerospace Enterprises, the Middle East’s biggest plane lessor, said it repurchased outstanding common shares worth $450 million (Dh1.65 billion).
The state-owned lessor also said on Monday that it received $450m in connection with the early partial repayment of a note receivable from certain shareholders.
"Our strong balance sheet combined with our best-in-class margins allowed us to further optimise our balance sheet prior to year-end," Firoz Tarapore, chief executive of DAE, said.
"We are committed to running our business with low levels of leverage and optimal amounts of capital.”
DAE’s leasing and engineering divisions serve more than 125 airlines around the world from its seven locations in Dubai, Dublin, Amman, Singapore and the United States.
Its leasing division, DAE Capital, has an owned, managed and committed-to-own-and-manage fleet of approximately 410 Airbus, ATR and Boeing aircraft valued at more than $15.5bn.
Last month, the lessor posted a 10 per cent drop in its nine-month profit as depreciation expenses and finance costs increased.
DAE earned $260.5m in the nine months ending September 30, down from $290.5m in the same period a year ago. Nine-month revenue edged up 1.2 per cent to $1.7bn year-on-year, DAE said, but depreciation costs increased by $11.8m and net finance costs were $35m higher at $280.5m.
The Dubai-based company's third-quarter profit also fell to $63.4m from $95.2m in the same quarter a year ago, as revenue slipped to $343.5m, from $357.8m in the prior-year period.
In September, DAE said it received a mandate to acquire and manage aircraft worth about $1.4bn (Dh5.14bn). The multi-year mandate from an investor, one of the world's largest fund managers, will target narrow-body and wide-body jets that DAE will source through its secondary market trading and sale-and-leaseback channels.
