Dubai Aerospace Enterprise's merged platform has completed 108 aircraft transactions during the first half. Courtesy of DAE Capital
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise's merged platform has completed 108 aircraft transactions during the first half. Courtesy of DAE Capital

Dubai Aerospace secures up to $800m in funding as it mulls 400-jet order



Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, the Middle East’s biggest aircraft lessor with a $14 billion (Dh51bn) fleet, signed a deal for an unsecured revolving $480 million credit facility with local and regional banks as it seeks to diversify its sources of funding.

The four-year deal can be extended to up to $800m and has both Islamic and conventional tranches, DAE said in an emailed statement on Monday. Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Noor Bank helped arrange the facility.

The deal “adds to the unsecured component of our liquidity profile, increasing our unsecured revolving credit facilities to $1.125bn to $1.445bn depending on the final committed amount of this facility,” Firoz Tarapore, chief executive of DAE said.

The state-owned company is in talks with Airbus and Boeing for an order of 400 narrow-body jets and may expand its portfolio through the acquisition of another lessor if there’s no agreement with the planemakers. DAE is growing its fleet further after it acquired Dublin-based lessor AWAS last year in a deal that propelled it to the top ranks of global aircraft lessors, swelling its portfolio to nearly 400 planes.

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DAE is also considering the issuance of a $500m sukuk and could tap the market either later this year or in 2019, depending on market appetite, Tarapore said in April. In 2017, DAE raised $2.3bn in senior bonds split across three tranches in the US to fund its acquisition of Awas.

On a pro forma basis as of December 2017, if the new facility is fully drawn and if the proceeds are used to pay down secured indebtedness, DAE’s percentage of unsecured debt would increase from 26 per cent to reach a range of 31 per cent to 34 per cent, Tarapore said.

The facility will support DAE’s purchase of the aircraft, spare engines and pre-delivery financing that it intends to dispose of or refinance, Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait said in an emailed statement.

Legal council for the lenders were Clyde& Co and for the borrowers Clifford Chance.

DAE’s leasing and engineering divisions serve more than 125 airline customers from its seven locations in Dubai, Dublin, Amman, Singapore and the US, according to its website.

The Bio

Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”

Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”

Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”

Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”

2018 ICC World Twenty20 Asian Western Sub Regional Qualifier

Event info: The tournament in Kuwait this month is the first phase of the qualifying process for sides from Asia for the 2020 World T20 in Australia. The UAE must finish within the top three teams out of the six at the competition to advance to the Asia regional finals. Success at regional finals would mean progression to the World T20 Qualifier.

UAE’s fixtures: Fri Apr 20, UAE v Qatar; Sat Apr 21, UAE v Saudi Arabia; Mon Apr 23, UAE v Bahrain; Tue Apr 24, UAE v Maldives; Thu Apr 26, UAE v Kuwait

World T20 2020 Qualifying process:

  • Sixteen teams will play at the World T20 in two years’ time.
  • Australia have already qualified as hosts
  • Nine places are available to the top nine ranked sides in the ICC’s T20i standings, not including Australia, on Dec 31, 2018.
  • The final six teams will be decided by a 14-team World T20 Qualifier.

World T20 standings: 1 Pakistan; 2 Australia; 3 India; 4 New Zealand; 5 England; 6 South Africa; 7 West Indies; 8 Sri Lanka; 9 Afghanistan; 10 Bangladesh; 11 Scotland; 12 Zimbabwe; 13 UAE; 14 Netherlands; 15 Hong Kong; 16 Papua New Guinea; 17 Oman; 18 Ireland

ASHES SCHEDULE

First Test
November 23-27 (The Gabba, Brisbane)
Second Test
December 2-6 (Adelaide Oval, Adelaide)
Third Test
December 14-18 (Waca Ground, Perth)
Fourth Test
December 26-30 (Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne)
Fifth Test
January 4-8, 2018 (Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney)

Who is Tim-Berners Lee?

Sir Tim Berners-Lee was born in London in a household of mathematicians and computer scientists. Both his mother, Mary Lee, and father, Conway, were early computer scientists who worked on the Ferranti 1 - the world's first commercially-available, general purpose digital computer. Sir Tim studied Physics at the University of Oxford and held a series of roles developing code and building software before moving to Switzerland to work for Cern, the European Particle Physics laboratory. He developed the worldwide web code as a side project in 1989 as a global information-sharing system. After releasing the first web code in 1991, Cern made it open and free for all to use. Sir Tim now campaigns for initiatives to make sure the web remains open and accessible to all.

How to improve Arabic reading in early years

One 45-minute class per week in Standard Arabic is not sufficient

The goal should be for grade 1 and 2 students to become fluent readers

Subjects like technology, social studies, science can be taught in later grades

Grade 1 curricula should include oral instruction in Standard Arabic

First graders must regularly practice individual letters and combinations

Time should be slotted in class to read longer passages in early grades

Improve the appearance of textbooks

Revision of curriculum should be undertaken as per research findings

Conjugations of most common verb forms should be taught

Systematic learning of Standard Arabic grammar

Messi at the Copa America

2007 – lost 3-0 to Brazil in the final

2011 – lost to Uruguay on penalties in the quarter-finals

2015 – lost to Chile on penalties in the final

2016 – lost to Chile on penalties in the final

NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

The%20specs
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Mubalada World Tennis Championship 2018 schedule

Thursday December 27

Men's quarter-finals

Kevin Anderson v Hyeon Chung 4pm

Dominic Thiem v Karen Khachanov 6pm

Women's exhibition

Serena Williams v Venus Williams 8pm

Friday December 28

5th place play-off 3pm

Men's semi-finals

Rafael Nadal v Anderson/Chung 5pm

Novak Djokovic v Thiem/Khachanov 7pm

Saturday December 29

3rd place play-off 5pm

Men's final 7pm

THE SIXTH SENSE

Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Rating: 5/5

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20IPHONE%2014
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