Tuesday, Jul 19, 2011

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DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Dubai Aerospace Enterprise Ltd., or DAE, a state-owned aircraft leasing company, said Tuesday it has successfully concluded discussions and reached agreement with its lenders on a new, four-year credit facility that will replace an existing one.

DAE has "concluded discussions with its existing lenders and reached agreement on a new, four-year credit facility to replace the existing credit facility maturing on 23 July 2011," the company said in an emailed statement without providing any further details. DAE didn't respond to emailed questions from Zawya Dow Jones.

Analysts at JP Morgan have estimated the debt to be worth $800 million.

Earlier this month, Boeing Co. (BA) said it was in talks with DAE about possible cancellations of its remaining orders, having already scrapped the bulk of a splashy $27 billion push to enter the industry's global elite. DAE in recent months also dropped a raft of 737 and 787 orders and in early July cancelled its last orders for Airbus aircraft.

DAE is partly owned by Investment Corp. of Dubai, a 100% government-owned group that has bonds and loans worth nearly $6 billion due this year, according to an International Monetary Fund report published in May.

The IMF has warned that high debt levels among Dubai and Abu Dhabi government related entities, or GREs, present a significant risk to the sovereign balance sheets of both emirates, which may face funding cost "shocks" as they attempt to roll over $60 billion worth of debt maturing this year and next.

DAE, launched in 2006 to become a multi-billion dollar aerospace, manufacturing and services group, in May reported consolidated net income of $10.3 million after making a loss of more than $20 million a year earlier. Last month, the company said the chief executive officer of its capital division, DAE Capital, had left the firm.

DAE's other shareholders are Dubai International Capital, DIFC Investments, Emaar Properties, Istithmar World and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, according to the company's website.

-By Oliver Klaus and Tim Falconer, Dow Jones Newswires; +9714 446-1690; tim.falconer@dowjones.com

(Kaveri Niththyananthan in London contributed to this article.)

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Co.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

19-07-11 0843GMT