DAE Q1 profit before tax sees 70pc drop at $25m
Dubai, UAE, May 5, 2021
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) today (May 5) reported a 70 per cent drop in its adjusted profit before tax to $25 million from $83.8 million in Q1, 2020 `impacted by higher loss allowance’ for the first quarter (Q1) 2021.
The global aviation service company’s revenue fell 12.6 per cent to $307.5 million as against $352 million in the same quarter, a year ago, according to a statement issued by the company.
The company, however, said it achieved sequential lease revenue growth of 7.1 per cent in Q1 2021 on the back of strong business momentum.
The company’s owned and managed aircraft asset acquisitions and sales were valued at $573 million and $152 million, respectively, while operating cash flows were recorded at $218 million in Q1 2021.
“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,” he added.
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, it 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.
“We remain 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,” he added.--TradeArabia News Service
