DAE Secures $300 Million Loan From Bank of China

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) has signed a three-year, $300 million unsecured loan facility with Bank of China (Dubai Branch), Bank of China (London Branch) Limited, and Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited. The facility will be used for general corporate purposes and to support the company’s future business financing needs.

DAE CEO Firoz Tarapore said that this transaction with Bank of China provides DAE with additional liquidity to support the company’s ongoing commitment to meeting the needs of our airline customers while maintaining the efficiency and modernisation of its fleet.

Bank of China (Dubai) General Manager Pan Xinyuan said that they were looking forward to continuing to support bilateral relations between China and the UAE and foster the growth of UAE companies.”

According to DAE’s financial results for the first quarter of this year, the total loans and borrowings (net of debt issuance costs) decreased to $7.991 billion as at 31 March 2025 from $7.999 billion as at the end of last year.

The level of unsecured debt as at 31 March 2025 stood at 80.1% compared with 79.4% in the previous quarter. The average cost of debt as at 31 March 2025 was 4.6% which remained same as 4.6 % as at 31 December 2024 and the weighted average debt maturity was 4.4 years compared with 4.3 years for the corresponding period respectively.

The company owns 256 aircraft with a total carrying value of around $8.90 billion which were unencumbered at 31 March 2025 and 75 aircraft which were used as collateral on its secured facilities.

Unsecured Credit Facilities

The company also said that the unsecured credit facilities at 31 March 2025 of $2.7 billion were undrawn and available.

“We expect to meet our contractual payment obligations on future capital expenditure through a combination of equity, cash flows from operations, commercial debt raising activities and the utilisation of revolving credit facilities in aggregate,” DAE said.

The available liquidity was around $3.2 billion as at March 31, 2025 compared with $3.78 billion as at 31 December 2024. The total equity increased close to $3.14 billion as at 31 March 2025 from $3.07 billion as at 31 December 2024. The Net Debt to Equity ratio was 2.43:1 times compared with 2.42:1 times during the same period, DAE said.

“We believe that the sources of liquidity mentioned above, together with cash generated from operations, will be fully sufficient to operate our business and repay our debt maturities for at least the next 12 months,” DAE added.