His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of DAE, commented: “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.”
Mr. Khalifa AlDaboos, Managing Director of DAE and Deputy Chief Executive Officer 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%. We are delighted with DAE’s performance so far and look forward to growing the franchise in the future.”
Commenting on the financial results for 2019, Firoz Tarapore, Chief Executive Officer of DAE, said: “2019 was a breakout year for us in terms of growing our 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. We now have 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.”
Highlights include:
- Total Revenue: US$1,421.3 million (2018: US$1,436.6 million)
- Profit Before Tax: US$413.6 million (2018: US$428.8 million)
- Pre-Tax Profit Margin: 29.1% (2018: 29.8%)
- Pre-Tax Return on Equity: 12.6% (2018: 12.8%)
- Net Debt-to-Equity: 2.64x (Year-end 2018: 2.57x)
- Unsecured Debt as a percentage of Total Debt: 62% (Year-end 2018: 46%)
- Available Liquidity: US$2,404 million (Year-end 2018: US$1,558 million)
