Mustang Aerospace: DAE and Neuberger Berman Target a $6 Billion Aircraft Portfolio

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) and Neuberger Berman on 6 July 2026 launched Mustang Aerospace, a Dubai-headquartered joint venture built to acquire up to $6 billion of commercial aircraft assets over the medium term. A syndicate of six global banks has underwritten the warehouse facility funding the platform’s opening trades.

The deal: hard numbers, no rounding

DAE announced the venture on its corporate site, dubaiaerospace.com, alongside coverage in The National. The US side is led by Neuberger Specialty Finance, the asset-based investment arm of Neuberger Berman, a global asset manager with roughly $567 billion under management. Six banks — Goldman Sachs, Mizuho, BNP Paribas, MUFG, Société Générale and Truist — signed the warehouse line financing Mustang’s opening trades. The agreement took effect in early July 2026. Mustang is targeting up to $6 billion of aircraft assets in the medium term. For context, DAE’s own fleet stood at 700 aircraft worth $25 billion as of 31 March 2026.

How Mustang Aerospace is structured

Mustang runs as a co-investment vehicle. DAE handles the operating side — asset management, servicing and remarketing. Neuberger Specialty Finance brings institutional capital via its managed funds. The strategy is straightforward: buy and manage a diversified fleet of commercial aircraft, in part through sale-and-leaseback, the mechanism under which an airline sells an aircraft to a lessor and immediately leases it back. According to The National, the structure is designed to answer the global aircraft shortage driven by delivery delays at Boeing and Airbus. Firoz Tarapore, CEO of DAE, framed the venture as formalising nearly a decade of informal cooperation into a scalable business, and as a broader push to package DAE’s platform as an investment service for institutional capital. Sean Hinze, Managing Director at Neuberger Specialty Finance, described the strategy as asset-based investing with durable cash flows and downside protection.

DAE’s role in UAE aviation finance

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise is the largest aircraft lessor in the Middle East, serving more than 200 airlines across 80-plus countries. The company already runs 17 servicing mandates for institutional investors, according to AGBI; Mustang Aerospace adds to that roster. DAE’s sole shareholder is Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), the emirate’s sovereign investment fund, which also owns Emirates Group and Emirates NBD. That ownership places Mustang inside the same financial perimeter as Dubai’s largest state-held assets.

Neuberger Berman and the institutional capital side

Neuberger Specialty Finance is the asset-based investment franchise inside Neuberger Berman. The unit focuses on strategies with stable, contractual cash flows and already deploys more than $5 billion across 50-plus portfolio companies. Its partnership with DAE dates back to 2017. Mustang Aerospace formalises nine years of informal cooperation into a standalone legal entity domiciled in Dubai. DAE’s own language on the deal frames it as a long-horizon platform — not a one-off transaction, but a permanent investment channel.

What it means for business and investors in the UAE

• Dubai is cementing its status not just as an aviation hub — Emirates, Etihad, flydubai, Air Arabia — but as an aircraft-finance hub. DAE remains the region’s number-one lessor and now gains a direct institutional pipeline from the United States.
• Neuberger Berman’s $567 billion AUM flowing into a UAE-domiciled structure signals global-investor confidence in Dubai’s financial architecture. It sits alongside e&’s recent $5.95 billion sale of its Vodafone stake and the UAE’s record $48.3 billion FDI print for 2025.
• A warehouse line from Goldman Sachs, MUFG, BNP Paribas, Mizuho, Société Générale and Truist backing a UAE-based JV shows local vehicles can now carry “six global banks, one platform” deals without routing through London or New York.
• Sale-and-leaseback is a growing segment. Airlines free up capital by selling aircraft and leasing them back; lessors grow their fleets. As the regional leader, DAE gains a sharper competitive edge in that market through Mustang.
• For business owners and investors operating out of the UAE, this is a working precedent for a co-investment vehicle built on DIFC/ADGM foundations with an international capital stack — from an emirate-level sovereign fund to a G7 bank syndicate.

What comes next

With the warehouse facility signed, Mustang’s opening acquisitions are cleared for funding. The company has flagged the ramp to $6 billion as a medium-term target and has not published a specific timeline. AGBI reports that the first aircraft purchases are expected within the coming months. In parallel, DAE is broadening its lineup of investment services for institutional clients — with Mustang Aerospace positioned as the flagship platform for that push, and the largest structure of its kind established in Dubai.