Emirates Said to Seek $1 Billion Revolving Credit Line to Finance Aircraft

Emirates, the Dubai government-owned airline, is seeking to borrow $1 billion through a revolving- credit facility, according to three bankers who received requests from the carrier.

Emirates asked banks to propose conditions for the borrowing including the lifetime, said two of the bankers, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. The money would be used to fund aircraft purchases, said two of the bankers.

Emirates, the world’s biggest carrier by international traffic, has ordered 203 planes and will take delivery of two aircraft a month on average for the next six years. The airline needs more than $28 billion through 2017 for the expansion of its fleet, double the amount it has raised since 1996, Gary Chapman, head of finance and services, said Sept. 1.

The airline has total borrowings and lease liabilities of 19.6 billion dirhams ($5.3 billion) as of the end of March, according to its annual report.

The carrier’s profit in the six months ending September quadrupled to 3.4 billion dirhams from 752 million dirhams a year earlier as passenger numbers and cargo handling rose. It had 12.5 billion dirhams in cash at the end of September.

Money in a revolving credit can be borrowed again once it has been repaid, while in a term loan it can’t.

To contact the reporters on this story: Camilla Hall in Dubai at chall24@bloomberg.net; Arif Sharif in Dubai at asharif2@bloomberg.net; To contact the reporters on this story: Karen Eeuwens in London keeuwens@bloomberg.net