Dubai, U.A.E., 25 February 2019 – Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) Ltd. reported its financial results for full-year 2018. Highlights included:
Total Revenue: US$1,436.6 million, up 70% (2017: US$845.8 million)
Profit Before Tax: US$428.8 million, up 135% (2017: US$182.4 million)
Pre-Tax Profit Margin: 30%
Pre-Tax Return on Equity: 12.8%
Net Debt-to-Equity: 2.57x (Year-end 2017: 3.17x)
Unsecured Debt as a percentage of Total Debt: 46% (Year-end 2017: 23%)
Available Liquidity: $1,558 million (Year-end 2017: $832 million)
Corporate Credit Ratings – KBRA/Moody’s/S&P: BBB+/Ba1/BB+ (2017: --/Ba2/BB)

Commenting on the strong financial results for 2018, Firoz Tarapore, Chief Executive Officer of DAE, said: “DAE continued to build on its unique strengths and platform capabilities, a 33-year knowledge base, deep customer relationships, strong access to capital and stable and supportive ownership to position itself as a premier leasing and engineering company. 2018 was the first full year of the combined leasing company’s operations following the acquisition of AWAS in August 2017. 2018 was also the first full year of the engineering division under new leadership and full transformation of the division into a top-tier global competitor. During 2018, we recorded strong financial and operational performance across our businesses.

We also took concrete steps to strengthen the quality of our balance sheet as evidenced by improvements in our unsecured funding and available liquidity metrics. Our performance was recognized by the credit rating agencies with credit rating upgrades from Moody’s and S&P, and a new investment grade rating from KBRA. As we enter 2019, our financial metrics are stronger than ever and we are well positioned on our journey to become an investment grade rated company from all of the major credit rating agencies.”