Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, the Middle East’s biggest plane lessor, recorded a 1.2 per cent dip in second-quarter profits.
Net income attributable to shareholders for the three months ending June 30 fell to $98.2 million (Dh360m), from $99.3m during the prior-year period, DAE said on Tuesday, without providing reasons. Second-quarter revenue rose 2.2 per cent to Dh366.9m.
First-half profit was $197.1m in 2019, compared to $195.2m for the same period last year, DAE said. First-half revenue rose to $726.9m, compared to $711.4m in the previous-year period.
Last month, Fitch Ratings assigned DAE a long-term Issuer default rating of "BBB-" with a stable outlook.
In the first half of this year, DAE purchased eight aircraft, sold 18 jets and the size of its fleet reached 357 planes as of June 30. Its portfolio consisted of 302 owned aircraft, 51 managed aircraft and four committed planes from Airbus and Boeing. These four jets are due for delivery throughout 2019 and 2020.
DAE drew down a total of $1.7bn of borrowings during the six months ended 30 June, 2019.
After the company repurchased shares held by Emaar Properties, it is now fully owned by the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD).
The lessor on Monday said it had secured $490m in loans to finance its growth plans.
DAE signed three loan agreements to raise the funds and the loans will have maturities ranging from three to seven years.
"We continue to bolster our liquidity cushion to support our growth ambitions and opportunities," said Firoz Tarapore, chief executive of DAE. "Our very strong balance sheet and solid operating model continue to attract lenders, new and existing, to DAE.”
