Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) has received over 50 rent deferral requests from airlines around the world amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, 11 of which have been granted, the leasing firm said in a business update.
Outlining its current position, DAE said it sold or novated 15 aircraft and acquired four more during the first quarter of 2020, ending the quarter with approximately $2.8 billion, the company has announced.
DAE said it also extended leases on 8 aircraft over the course of the quarter.
“In these unprecedented times, DAE has positioned itself to operate calmly and to balance the needs of all our important constituents – employees, customers, bondholders and banks and shareholders,” DAE CEO Firoz Tarapore said in a statement.
Tarapore said while available liquidity stands at $2.8 billion, DAE’s liquidity requirements – for bond maturity and capex requirements over the next 12 months – remain “modest” at $430 million.
Disrupted revenue
With many of the company’s customers experiencing disrupted revenue as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, DAE said it continues to “receive requests for assistance in different shapes and sizes, and we evaluate them on a case-by-case basis”.
To date, DAE has granted 11 rent deferral requests, totalling aggregate rent of approximately 2 percent of annual reported revenue.
It is currently evaluating 42 rent deferral requests, totalling aggregate rent of approximately 16 percent of annual reported revenue, totalling aggregate rent of approximately 16 percent of annual reported revenue.
Additionally, DAE has restarted a bond repurchase programme and repurchased approximately $170 million worth of aircraft in Q1 2020.
DAE’s leasing and engineering division in Dubai serves over 125 airline customers from around the globe. Its leasing division has an owned, managed, committed and mandated to manage a fleet of approximately 410 Airbus, ATR and Boeing aircraft worth $15.5 billion.
Source:https://www.arabianbusiness.com/transport/444170-dubais-aviation-leasing-firm-mulls-deferral-requests-amid-covid-19-pandemic