DAEs Q1 profit before tax drops 70% to $25mln

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) reported on Wednesday adjusted profit before tax dropped 70 per cent to $25 million from $83.8 million year-on year “impacted by higher loss allowance” for the first quarter 2021.

The global aviation services company headquartered in Dubai said in a statement that while revenue fell 12.l6 per cent to $307.5 million from $352 million year-on-year, it could achieve sequential lease revenue growth of 7.1 per cent in Q1 on the back of strong business momentum.

The company’s owned and managed aircraft asset acquisitions were valued at $573 million while sales reached $152 million in Q1.

“We saw a robust level of business activity in Q1 2021 in both our aircraft leasing and engineering divisions. Revenue at DAE’s engineering division hit a record high,” said Firoz Tarapore, chief executive officer of DAE. He said DAE’s Aircraft Leasing division recorded sequential growth in lease revenue driven by net additions to its owned portfolio. “We continued to underwrite new technology aircraft and grew our aircraft portfolio by taking delivery of 13 fuel efficient aircraft in Q1 2021.”

Tarapore said DAE would continue to strengthen its balance sheet. Since the onset of the pandemic, DAE has added $69.8 million to its loss allowance, which now stands at $84.3 million. In addition, the company augmented its liquidity position by issuing $1.55 billion of new, unsecured debt in Q1 2021 with an average maturity of 5.25 years.

“We remain both encouraged by and vigilant about the trends in our industry. Air traffic demand in large domestic markets is recovering at an encouraging pace; however, cross-border travel is recovering at a slower and more uneven pace despite considerable pent-up demand globally,” said Tarapore.

He said DAE remained confident that deployment of vaccines in the next six months will be faster and more broad-based than it has been heretofore, and this will form the foundation for the next leg up in international, regional and domestic air travel growth.

— issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com