UAE – Mubasher: Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) Ltd on Monday announced that it has received an investment mandate worth $1.4 billion from one of the largest fund managers in the world to source and manage aircraft.

The assets will be acquired by DAE and managed by DAE’s Aircraft Investor Services (AIS) platform on behalf of the investor, according to a press release.

Through the multi-year mandate, the Dubai-based aerospace corporation will source and manage the aircraft and assist the investor with the capital structure for the acquired aircraft.

“The mandate will primarily target used narrow-body and wide-body aircraft sourced through DAE’s global relationships in secondary market trading and sale-leaseback channels,” DAE said.

This mandate brings DAE’s managed portfolio to over $2.7 billion in assets under management, the company noted.

Along with other ongoing projects, DAE’s managed portfolio is expected to grow to its target of $5 billion.

Firoz Tarapore, CEO of DAE said: “DAE is thrilled to have the opportunity to grow its managed aircraft business by sourcing and managing aircraft for a world-class financial institution.  We are off to a flying start and have already sourced 25% of the portfolio.”

“We own more than 300 aircraft and will manage more than 100 aircraft. We maintain an active dialog with 250 airline customers. This scale and relevance combined with our 150-person full-service platform and our industry leading AIS offering is a very compelling value proposition for investors in the managed aircraft space” Tarapore added.